Former Melbourne coach Paul Roos details the club’s rise from basket case to premiership contender
WHEN Paul Roos got to Melbourne, the club was the definition of a basket case. How did he help take them from rock bottom to a respectable football club? SAM LANDSBERGER goes inside the rebuild.
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PAUL Roos slapped the whiteboard and demanded more from his Melbourne players.
It was 2014 and scribbled on the board were Daniel Cross’s GPS numbers.
Cross, who was 31, ran 15-17km in games and recorded high repeat sprint numbers as he went about shutting down the opposition’s best midfielder.
“Here’s a guy that got the flick from another footy club (Western Bulldogs) and has come in and have a look at his commitment to game day,” Roos told the Sunday Herald Sun.
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“Have a look at how hard he runs on game day. There were some pretty good standards around their training, but there was just this massive fear around game day.
“You need role models for players to be able to say, ‘Hang on, I just beat him in the 3km. I know Crossy’s fit, but sh*t, I reckon I can do that’.”
The “good standards” at training stemmed from fitness boss Dave Misson, one of the few survivors at the club from 2013.
Only seven players remain — Max Gawn, Neville Jetta, Dean Kent, Tom McDonald, Cam Pedersen and co-captains Jack Viney and Nathan Jones.
Senior coach Mark Neeld was axed mid-season and Jade Rawlings was the only assistant who kept his job for 2014 as Roos assembled his posse.
“To be honest I wouldn’t have taken the job without bringing in that coaching group,” Roos said.
“To be able to bring in Ben Mathews, Brett Allison, Daniel McPherson and Georgey Stone, that was as significant a step in my time.
“It meant you’re starting with a chance, because you’ve got guys that have been there and done that, work really well together, no egos and are there for the right reasons.”
Roos received a blunt warning from new chief executive Peter Jackson when he agreed to coach the Demons.
Jackson told Roos the Demons were no Mona Lisa. Roos described the club as more of a “crayon thing from kindergarten” when he arrived.
Everything had to change in 2013 and Cross was brought in to raise the bar.
“Certainly (Jackson) didn’t sugar-coat anything,” Roos said.
“As bad as it was, no one ever said any differently. No one was trying to say it’s a top-eight team or you should be fine in a years’ time.
“So there’s no false bravado around what we had to do. That’s exactly the first step to allowing it to get to where it’s got to now.”
Now — after six consecutive wins — Roos is bullish.
“I think Melbourne have got the most talented list in the comp now,” he said.
“What they do with it is up to them. It’s still growing, it’s still young and it’s still got a lot to achieve, as Simon (Goodwin) would know, but in terms of where they’re positioned it’s exciting.”
On Queen’s Birthday they will shoot for win No. 7 in a row, a feat last achieved as the Dees advanced to the 2000 Grand Final.
Premiership coach Luke Beveridge said the streak of 18 consecutive quarters the Demons won, which the Dogs ended on Saturday, showed how smoothly they were travelling on every level.
“They’ve got great depth and a really rounded approach to the game,” Beveridge said after scouting the Demons last week.
“They seem to defend extremely well and they’re really potent offensively. They appear to be on the rise.”
Roos rated consistency the highlight of the current form spike.
“I see the talent coupled up with the consistency and effort and when you’ve got that combination it can be pretty powerful.”
While the run of quarters won has been lauded, when Roos was at the helm he pointed to percentage.
“We were 54 (per cent in 2013) and people still don’t put that in perspective,” Roos said.
“Carlton now are (63 per cent) and Brisbane Lions are like 80-something (82).
“Richard Colless (ex-Swans chairman) talked about that years ago — that percentage was often a much better indication of where you’re at, as opposed to wins and losses.
“There’s some truth to that. Getting percentage up year on year, certainly in my three years, was a huge part of what we tried to do.
“Get it up to around 100, which means you’re an effectively an 11-11 team.”
From 2013 the Demons’ percentage has climbed from 54 to 68 to 77 to 98 to 105 and it now sits a league-high 140.2
Over the past six weeks it is an astonishing 205.6.
There seems to be a mix of shame and anger driving these players.
Two days after West Coast pinched Melbourne’s finals spot last year, Dees players embarked on a mass drinking session which culminated at the Garden State Hotel on Flinders Lane.
They vowed to make amends over summer. Max Gawn cut sugar and carbs out of his diet and shredded 8kg, training every day of his holidays — even in the US and Bali.
The Demons wanted to grow a steely edge and halfway through 2018 they rank No. 1 for goals, time in forward half, forward-half turnovers and inside-50 differential.
As club great Garry Lyon noted, if you don’t compete you don’t play under Goodwin.
Perhaps that is why Jeff Garlett is out of the side and Jack Watts is out of the club.
They have slowly become a destination club, pulling Michael Hibberd and Jake Melksham out of Essendon and Jake Lever from Adelaide.
Before Roos arrived the Demons churned through five coaches in just 141 games, three of them caretakers after mid-season departures.
Demons insiders say Jackson was the critical appointment in stopping the rot. The AFL helped insert Jackson into the shambolic Demons in a rescue mission after the board sacked Cameron Schwab.
In May, 2013 Jackson signed on an interim basis for six months. More than five years on and he is still in the chair, although is slowly clearing the desk with the Demons searching for a successor for 2019.
Jackson brought stability and strategy and arrived as a respected footy voice. He negotiated the Roos coup and that appointment bought a grace period of three years.
How much harder is Brendon Bolton’s job at Carlton, trying to scale back to ground zero as well as be the coach for the future?
“PJ seemed to give the admin a lot of confidence,” Roos said.
“You can never underestimate what that brings to a football club. Just having someone come in and people go, ‘Oh great, we’ve now got someone that can do this, this and this’.”
The on-field turnaround started with getting the right players. Recruiter Jason Taylor joined from Collingwood in 2013 and has found gold in every draft.
The Demons took James Harmes as a rookie in 2013 and had the guts to pull the trigger on a chubby midfielder named Clayton Oliver at No. 4 in 2015.
In 2014 they went Christian Petracca, Angus Brayshaw, Alex Neal-Bullen, Billy Stretch and Oscar McDonald.
How juicy is that haul? Already Charlie Spargo and Bailey Fritsch have made bright starts to their careers from last year’s crop.
The totality is what strikes you about the rebirth. Everyone has contributed.
Part-time scout Robbie Barletta unearthed Jayden Hunt and then development coach Brendan McCartney hammered a harder edge into Hunt at training.
Tim Lamb is the Demons’ contract manager, Todd Viney is the list boss and football and Josh Mahoney manages the football department.
But it is Goodwin who is extracting maximum reward right now. Renowned for his relationships with players, how many players are in career-best form?
Jesse Hogan, Angus Brayshaw, Jetta, Viney, McDonald, Melksham, Harmes and Gawn just to name a few.
Goodwin copped some flak for starting Brayshaw in the VFL this year. Goodwin challenged Brayshaw to work on some habits, played him off halfback on Anzac eve and then slowly graduated him into the midfield as a reward.
Brayshaw has collected 76 disposals and booted four goals in the past two weeks. Isn’t that the art of coaching?
Roos is as satisfied as any supporter.
“It’s incredibly pleasing,” he said.
“To run into people now whose kids are wearing the jumper to school again and that probably started in my third year (2016).
“The overall turnaround has been amazing. It’s bloody great to run into Melbourne people now and see how excited they are about their footy club.”
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Originally published as Former Melbourne coach Paul Roos details the club’s rise from basket case to premiership contender
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