Sydney AFL co-captain Craig Bolton believes his Canadian teammate Mike Pyke could play senior football this year, though he worries the big man's enthusiasm could inadvertently hurt opposing players.

The former Canadian Test rugby back played his first competitive game of Australian Rules in Sydney's 65-point NAB Cup loss to Port Adelaide in Canberra.

Pyke, 24, recorded the modest statistics of one kick, two handballs, one mark and three hitouts.

Sharing time with established Sydney ruckman Darren Jolly and youngster Jake Orreal, the 200cm Canadian did enough to catch the eye of coach Paul Roos and his new teammates.

"He (Pyke) has been great, he's so willing to learn and he's so enthusiastic, you give him full marks on that front," defender Bolton said.

"You just hope he doesn't hurt someone. When he gets out there, he's just so keen to get after the footy and get involved.

"I think yesterday he was great, he's really going to improve as the weeks go by."

Asked if he could see Pyke playing in the AFL season, Bolton said "it will probably depend on our ruck stocks and how things are going."

"But he has shown that, if he keeps improving the way he is, he has every chance to put his hand up for a senior game and, the way he goes about his footy, he's a good chance to be playing this year."

Bolton wasn't overly concerned by the magnitude of Sunday's loss but admitted his side had plenty to work on, especially defensively.

"When we turned the ball, we just couldn't seem to get it back off them and that's something we've always been pretty good at - the defensive side of the game," Bolton said.

"Yesterday it was almost non-existent.

"There were some good patches moving the ball forward, but definitely our defensive side let us down."

All Australian representative Bolton was optimistic Sydney could rectify their defensive problems and fill the gaps created by the departure of Irishman Tadhg Kennelly and an injury to veteran fullback Leo Barry which could sideline him for the first couple of months of the season.

"We've got (youngster) Jesse (White) down there for a bit yesterday and he is one player that we will be looking to play down there a lot this year," Bolton said.

"Hopefully he can keep improving in that area and getting Rhyce Shaw down there was a huge bonus for us yesterday.

"He's a very good player, an established one and can slot in quite easily and we've got Ted Richards, myself, and Lewis Roberts-Thomson is still to come back, so we should have most of the bases covered hopefully."

Bolton was impressed by the Sydney debut of former Collingwood player Shaw, but doubted whether the recruit would be allowed to spend all his time across the halfback line.

"I think the midfield coach will keep pinching him and he will play more in the midfield, but if he could play down back ... it would certainly give opposition forward lines something to think about."

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