Melbourne coach Paul Roos adopting go slow style he made famous in Sydney

PAUL Roos has copped it once before for playing ugly and it remains one of the most famous digs in footy from outgoing AFL chief Andrew Demetriou.

Demons coach Paul Roos addresses his players. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

PAUL Roos has copped it once before for playing ugly.

It remains one of the most famous digs in footy that AFL chief Andrew Demetriou said he didn’t like the way the Swans were playing, and would struggle, if they continued.

Almost 10 years on, Demetriou would be forgiven for thinking history may have repeated at Roos’s new club, Melbourne.

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But the short-chipping, go-slow game plan is a necessary evil for the red and blue.

In the past two years the Demons have tried to play-on quickly and been repeatedly punished on the scoreboard.

It meant Melbourne players spent the bulk of the games defending, slowly but surely shattering the Dees and their fans’ spirits.

What Melbourne does now is try to maintain possession at all costs, which, added with a generous amount of defensive desperation, helps make a team that was once a basket case competitive again.

While the television audience would have spent the night looking for a late night move to watch (if they did not hang on purely to see if Lance Franklin would lose the plot) the Demons made a genuine fist of this contest in the first half, trailing by only 17 points at the main change.

It was clear at that stage that Melbourne is no longer a broken football club. In fact, there is a lot of pride and purpose at AAMI Park, now.

You could tell watching Lynden Dunn fly back with the flight of the footy to spoil, Dean Terlich hunt down Lewis Jetta in the middle of the ground and an outnumbered Chris Dawes provide four consecutive efforts to keep a ball alive.

When the Demons’ No. 9 pick Christian Salem cleverly kept control of a bouncing ball and goaled kicking across his body 10 minutes into the last quarter, the entire team ran to congratulate him. The left-footed utility will be a classy player.

There was genuine effort and commitment there from the Demons and no more white flags. Not since Daniel Cross and Bernie Vince have come to the club, anyway.

But as admirable as it was by Melbourne to keep the Sydney forwards in-check on the MCG last night — restricting the visitors to nine goals for the game — the Demons’ execution was sadly lacking, especially forward of centre. Polishing this side up remains Roos’s greatest challenge.

By three quarter time Melbourne managed just 28 inside-50s. It’s difficult to kick a winning score from there.

But early, when there was genuine heat in this contest, Melbourne created chances to put Sydney under some genuine scoreboard pressure.

In the first term, Jack Watts and Jeremy Howe each dropped marks from about 30m-40m out from goal while Howe also missed a snapped shot from point blank range.

It was a tough night for Watts and the early missed opportunities was sloppy, at best.

At least the Dees are having a crack and remaining in the same ballpark on the scoreboard.

It’s just not pretty.