COACH Paul Roos says he’s hopeful key defender James Frawley will remain with the club next year and beyond.

Frawley, who is an unrestricted free agent, has opted to make a decision on his playing future at the end of the 2014 season. Roos said he wants the big man to stay in the red and blue.

“I’d be 99 per cent certain he hasn’t made a decision to leave, so that’s all I can ask,” he said from AAMI Park on Thursday.

“If he’s here and he’s made the decision to leave and it’s at the end of the season – that’s just what free agency is. He certainly looks committed at the moment and I’ve got no complaints whatsoever with James.

“Hopefully he stays.”

Looking ahead to Saturday night’s clash at Etihad Stadium, Roos acknowledged that it was hard to know how his players would fare against the Kangaroos in the final match of the season. But he was adamant that progress had been made in 2014.

“We’ve definitely made some ground – there’s no question – this year and you hope the players take that into the game Saturday night and finish off with a strong effort,” he said.

But Roos said there was still plenty of work to be done and patience was critical in today’s football environment.

“There is no more time than when you have to have patience now because of the 18 teams and because of free agency,” he said.

“There are a lot of challenges that exist because of equalisation and all of those things and I think football people understand that.

“For the good of the coaches, the coaches have a lot more time.”

In terms of how he has rated the season, Roos said an assessment wouldn’t be made until next week.

 “When we look back on it next week, you statistically weigh it up. Last year it was minus 100 possessions a game and minus 30 contested possessions,” he said.

“Perhaps once we weigh that up, we’ll be able to see the improvement. But when the season’s on, you’re generally week to week.

“It was always going to be a different coaching role to the Sydney coaching role and probably that was part of the appeal to be honest.”

Roos was optimistic most of the squad would be available for the start of pre-season.

“A lot of the others (operations) we’ve had to do – we’ve already done,” he said.

“My expectation is … hopefully we’ll get most of the players back pretty early and back training early.”