Melbourne players speak of influence new coach Paul Roos has had on them and playing group
CAMERON Pedersen has gone from coach-killer to looking like Royce Hart. And his form, like his team’s, can possibly be put down to one man.
CAMERON Pedersen knows he used to be a coach-killer, admitting to bad moments which would make the senior coach reach for a phone to destroy or wall to put his fist through.
The Demond forward was the type of player who with one action could make us wince and groan and wonder why he bothered.
“I am a bit like Wattsy (Jack Watts), who does these good things and then has one moment where people go, “Oh”,’’ he says.
“I have to not have those brain fades, or dropped marks, or not chase someone. The coaches say I play my best when I have heightened intensity.”
In Round 1 last year against Port Adelaide it was football’s cardinal sin — head-ducking — as Mark Neeld’s second season was derailed, never to recover.
Here was this fearsome looking key forward playing his first game for a new club and yet not committing to the cause.
Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane?
Ten rounds into the 2014 season, this bloke looks like Cameron Pedersen, plays like Royce Hart.
He is doing things we never believed capable: floating across packs, hitting up for one-grab marks on quality defenders.
He is exerting presence.
He is without a doubt the most improved player in the competition.
Bar none.
Of course we know what happened — “Roosy”.
But to hear Pedersen’s story is to have the essence of new coach Paul Roos distilled.
It is to hear how Pedersen has become one of Roosy’s Heroes, a band of players who have made huge gains under the new coach and taken them back to respectability.
“I remember when we signed him,’’ says Pedersen.
“I was at the press conference and we had all thought, “He’s not coming here. He’s had so much success, why would he want to come to us?”
“But he just has this aura. Since he came here he’s had such good buy-in and he’s really good at having those one-on-one conversations about what you are doing well and what you need to improve.
“The first couple of weeks I trained as a backman, but I got told I wasn’t physical enough and floated into contests. I got told if I wanted to stay in the team I had to crash packs and tackle people hard and pretty much play like someone my size.
“Roosy is happy, he says my game has gone to a new level, but he still expects more. He is happy I am playing well, but he is also happy there is scope for improvement.”
If the former North Melbourne utility has gone to a new levels since his move forward, in truth the increased physicality started after that Round 1 catastrophe last year.
The 27-year-old is happy to confront that moment and use it as a reference point for his career.
“I don’t shy away from that any more. I use it as fuel to try to prove people wrong. I copped a bit of stuff in the media and lost some trust from my teammates and spent most of the year trying to build it back up.
“It came at a really bad time, first game for the club and then I got dropped and from then on you deliberately try to run back with the flight and get crunched and do the little things to show people you are not scared.
“I remember at the time I was playing in between two people and they kicked the ball and I knew it was close to me, and I just went up and pretty much patted it down with two hands. It is what it is.”
Yet even if he turned into the fearsome Glenn Archer, we never knew he had the ability to peel off this form, averaging 16 disposals and six marks in the past five weeks.
Pedersen says across the ground, players are thriving because they know their role.
“(Roosy) gives you a role and you have to play your role. And then if you aren’t playing your role, you either don’t know your role properly, or you are choosing not to play it. So it’s pretty simple.”
And there is the secret to Paul Roos: aura of a champion player and coach, simple game plan, absolute rigid adherence to it.
Spending an hour at AAMI Park this week was like entering a church.
Except the religion was Roosy.
If this wasn’t a football club you would consider the players’ statements and believe Roosy was the head of some cult.
Roosy’s Rapture, anyone?
That magical aura is hard to define, but so crucial in anything a head coach does.
“I don’t know the difference between now and last year, but I can only see what I have,’’ says ex-Crow Bernie Vince, playing the football of his life at 28.
“The respect he’s got in the footy world is just, he’s probably no. 1 in footy circles.
“So to be able to be coached under him is something I never thought I would experience and something I will keep for life.
“He is awesome. He’s been great for me, but for the young guys and the guys who have been here for a while like Watts, (Jimmy) Toumpas, Jack Trengove, those guys have the belief back in them.
“It is understandable they were lacking in belief because of what had happened here, but they have been able to play their own game and just release the pressure.”
Lynden Dunn, a drifter at times himself, is rediscovered as Roosy’s Mr Fixit.
``He has been great for me. We catch up weekly. He catches up with everyone,’’ says Dunn.
“I’ve got really specific things to work on in my game rather than just a general narrow focus, which is helping my footy now because I understand myself better as a player and a person. It gives me a clear focus week to week.”
At times Roos has no rules, and at others rules are all that matter.
Says Rohan Bail, another player having his best season yet: “He doesn’t mind parking his car where he wants in the car park. The boys get into him about it.
“But his story as an amazing player and then the culture he managed to cultivate at Sydney, it was amazing. They are still successful ten years later.
“He has brought a few (coaches) from Sydney who have that same aura about them. They try to empower the players and that’s really powerful.”
It is an open secret that Mark Neeld and Neil Craig were too negative on a fragile playing group scared of punishment.
But Roos managed the perfect blend of teaching fundamentals yet encouraging freedom.
A player’s progress is monitored by weekly meetings with Roos and review sessions where the players openly assess their peers’ mistakes and achievements, not just the coaches.
“I liked Neeldy but we were too regimented. We all had to be in certain spots and we were good at being over-coached,’’ says Pedersen.
“We would run to our spot at a stoppage and someone would be free five metres away but we would just stand in our spot. And that bloke would get the ball. Now we play with a bit mor freedom. Last year we were always in damage control, we tried not to get beaten by too much. We never believed we could win.
“The media said we did well to lose the Port Adelaide game by 20 points, but we were filthy we didn’t win that game.”
Saturday April 12 will be remembered as a seminal day for this band of players.
Up early against Carlton yet still winless four weeks into the season, the belief Roos was attempting to instill was wavering.
Yet as Carlton had stoppage after relentless stoppage in its own forward 50, the Melbourne players stood firm.
Here after all the coaching and cajoling and encouragement was empirical data that the Roos game plan worked.
Says Vince of that Roos aura: “Certainly there is no one talking when Roosy talks, no matter what he’s talking about.”
Pederson says Roos just gets the balance right.
“He’s very light-hearted all the time, but he just has a good balance of when to joke around and when to be serious.
“When we win he says well played, but you know you have another 20 or 30 per cent left in you. He gives us belief that we can do what Port Adelaide have done.”
The ultimate example of this new-found selflessness is Jeremy Howe.
The high-flyer was lauded for his marking prowess despite a mediocre year.
Roos and the coaching staff threw him back and made him play a team game that still makes the most of his strengths.
“He just has this persona about him,’’ says Howe.
“When he walks into the room you feel like he’s got something good to say. And you want to hear it.
“If he doesn’t walk in and crack a joke he wants us to take something in, so everyone shuts up and he speaks really well.
“He has got a lot of time for individuals at the club. He keeps everyone happy and he keeps everyone up and about.”
Talk about his best achievement: even players like Pedersen have gone from thinking about survival week to week to believing they belong.
“Even at the start of this year until four weeks ago, every game I was thinking even during the game, “Dawesy is back next week and I am playing forward and if I don’t play well he’s going to be in and I will be out”. Or “Gawny is coming in and playing the forward/ruck role and if Frawley is coming back where does my position go?”
“Now the biggest thing I have done is say if they do come back it’s great, but someone else is going to move because I will just play my role.”
ROOSY’S HEROES — WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT HIM
CAMERON PEDERSEN
“He gives you a role and you have to play it. And then if you are not playing your role, you either don’t know your role properly or you are choosing not to play it. So it’s pretty simple.”
LYNDEN DUNN
“He is very calm and clear in what he wants out of everyone.
“Just play your role week to week and if we can get everyone doing that on the ground you win more games than not.”
JEREMY HOWE
“If he doesn’t walk in and crack a joke he wants us to take something in, so everyone shuts up and he speaks really well.
“He has got a lot of time for individuals at the club. He keeps everyone happy and he keeps everyone up and about.
BERNIE VINCE
“There is no one talking when Roosy talks, no matter what he’s talking about.
“The respect he’s got in the footy world ... he’s probably no. 1 in footy circles.”
ROHAN BAIL
“His story as an amazing player and then the culture he managed to cultivate at Sydney, it was amazing. They are still successful ten years later.”
JACK WATTS
“I think in the past we’ve thought that individually we had to do something special to win a game of AFL footy. Whereas if every player just plays his role when it’s his turn to go, that’s when you win games of footy.“
Originally published as Melbourne players speak of influence new coach Paul Roos has had on them and playing group
‘Embarrassing’: AFL legend torches club
Garry Lyon has turned a flamethrower on an AFL club over a “dog’s breakfast” situation that has blown up in its face.
‘Shambles’: AFL club shredded over trade lie
The Melbourne Demons have been slammed for their handling of trade rumours, with ex-players labelling the club a “shambles”.
Demons make huge call on Clayton Oliver
The Melbourne Demons have made a massive decision on wantaway star Clayton Oliver as the Geelong circle the gun midfielder.