Paul Roos ‘embarrassed’ by Melbourne’s insipid 64-point loss to GWS Giants at MCG

MELBOURNE coach Paul Roos has labelled Sunday’s 10-goal thrashing to GWS “a huge step back” and believes his side is begging for the season to end.

AFL- Melbourne v GWS at MCG, Melbourne. Coach Paul Roos at 3/4 time. 17th August 2014. Picture: Colleen Petch.

MELBOURNE coach Paul Roos has labelled Sunday’s 10-goal thrashing to GWS “a huge step back” and believes his side is begging for the season to end.

The Demons were annihilated by the Giants, with the young side defying three game-ending injuries before half-time to win their first game in Victoria.

Melbourne made countless skill errors and were outrun by a team with one player on the bench for more than hour.

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Roos said it looked like his side had had enough.

“Today I would have said it looks like they’ve put the cue in the rack and thought ‘Well, four wins is good enough for us and we’ve improve’,” Roos said.

“They let themselves down and they let the supporters down, in particular.”

The Demons were booed by the own supporters in the second half, with Roos admitting he was humiliated.

“I’m embarrassed. The players can speak for themselves but, I mean, you’d have to be,” he said.

“Taking nothing away from the Giants, they were three down and it was a great effort ... whether our guys are tired, thrown the towel in, I suspect it will be different for every player but that’s the reality. It was a sub-AFL performance.

The scoreboard says it all as Nathan Jones and Daniel Cross lead Melbourne off the MCG turf. Picture: George Salpigtidis

“They outran us. I think it tells you about their mentality compared to our mentality. They outworked us with 19 players, I think they had 60-something interchange.

“We just didn’t play AFL football. I’m exactly the same as the supporters going: ‘How can you possibly miss that kick? How can you possibly miss that handball’?’’

The result prompted Roos to say transforming Melbourne was a “three to five year project” and it highlighted the new difficulties battling clubs faced in trying to move up the ladder.

“With an 18-team competition and free agency, I think everyone understands how hard it is if you’re a bottom club,” he said.

Cross fires out a handpass against GWS. Picture: George Salpigtidis

“That’s one of the biggest challenges of free agency. I suspect you’re going to have the same four teams in the preliminary finals as last year and we could very well have the same four teams next year.

“The competition has changed significantly with the Suns and Giants because those kids didn’t go to the bottom teams.

“Another step is free agency. We’ve seen the majority of the better players go to the top eight teams. (Brendon) Goddard, (Nick) Dal Santo, (Lance) Franklin etc, so that’s just the way it is.”

Originally published as Paul Roos ‘embarrassed’ by Melbourne’s insipid 64-point loss to GWS Giants at MCG