‘Really bizarre‘: Swans icon spills beans on ‘ugly’ AFL swipe

Sydney premiership coach Paul Roos says players believed umpires were influenced by a public swipe that came from the AFL boss.

Sydney premiership coach Paul Roos says his players believed umpires were influenced by Andew Demetriou’s “ugly” football comments during the 2005 season.

Demetriou said during the 2005 season that Sydney, who were the eventual premiers, played unattractive football which some media pundits had described as “ugly”.

Roos says he was surprised that no one from AFL House came out to hold the former AFL chief executive “accountable” following his remarkable anti-Swans comments.

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Speaking on the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast, Roos said the Swans were in disbelief that an AFL figure would make such claims about their club publicly.

“It just seemed like a really bizarre comment. We were the only team at the time in Sydney,” Roos said on Sacked.

“I was really surprised that no one held him accountable from the AFL. My first response is ‘can you imagine the CEO of Coca Cola saying, don’t drink Coca Cola in New South Wales. Drink Pepsi?’

“And I remember being on one of the big sports shows not long after he said it and legitimately the host said, ‘Roosy, what does he mean by ugly footy? Because it’s a rugby league town, it’s a physical town, it’s a town that likes toughness.’”

Swans Coach Paul Roos shakes hands with AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou. Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images.

Paul Roos and John Longmire.

Roos said his side used it as motivation during their drought-breaking premiership season.

“Did we use it at times (as motivation)? Yeah, we did. And did we feel like the AFL was against us? Probably at times we did, yeah, there’s no question about that. It was just a really bizarre thing for the AFL CEO to say.

“We just knew we were out of form. We knew what we were capable of. But yeah, it was a bit of a weird time.”

Roos said the club felt that the way it was umpired changed in the aftermath of Demetriou’s comments.

“We generally felt the way we played impacted the umpires,” Roos said.

“And that comment, that was probably one part of it. We did feel there were times when we were umpired differently. It was interesting. We had (an assistant) coach who came in 2006 or 2007 after we had won the premiership and he made an interesting comment doing the review and he said, ‘Guys, it’s funny. Now that I am here, I actually realise that you are umpired differently.’

“I don’t think it was intentional. This is not a criticism of the umpires, but umpires are human. You know, we want the ball moving. We want goals.

“The players because they are on the ground, they know when a free kick is paid and not paid, and I am not suggesting it was intentional but that was the feeling the players got.”

Roos spoke to his “fantastic” interactions with the umpires during his time as a coach, but did confirm a “bit of a blow up” with former AFL umpires manager Jeff Gieschen during the 2005 finals series.

“This is in no way shape or form a criticism of the umpires. My interactions with the umpires, apart from that little blue with Giesch, was fantastic,” he said.

“I can’t speak highly enough about them… but yeah, you’ve always gotta fight for your territory.

“It’s a tough job. It’s a really hard job, and they’re human… they read the paper, and they know what’s going on. They are 100 per cent impartial… but the umpires are human.”

Originally published as ‘Really bizarre‘: Swans icon spills beans on ‘ugly’ AFL swipe