Paul Roos worried about beating Carlton, not making finals

MELBOURNE coach Paul Roos says the prospect of finals must not distract the Demons from beating Carlton this week.

Paul Roos at Melbourne training.

MELBOURNE coach Paul Roos says the prospect of finals must not distract the Demons from beating Carlton this week.

The Blues upset Melbourne in the corresponding game last year.

“It’s great for external noise, I mean it just means you’re playing some good footy,” Roos said.

“Last time we played Carlton we got beaten so that’s got to be our real focus going into this weekend.”

Demons forward Jeff Garlett (skin infection) will be named in the 25-man squad for Sunday’s clash at the MCG, but must get through Friday’s training to play.

Exciting young forward Sam Weideman is likely to miss again, battling soreness in his quadriceps.

Melbourne must win its last two games and rely on North Melbourne dropping both by a margin to slot into the finals.

“Clearly we’re playing some good footy at the moment,” Roos said of the club’s three-game winning streak — it’s second in a decade.

“As a coaching group we’re always aware of the young group and if they hit the wall, we’re hoping they don’t, there’s no signs at the moment.

“It’s exciting for the club that this late in the season there’s excitement among the fans and particularly the players,” he said.

”But to me it’s more around when they’re bouncing into work, and they’re looking forward to training … having been involved in teams that can’t make the finals (sometimes) you can lose a bit of interest, at this stage the players are really interested.”

Regardless of what happens on the field, Roos said Melbourne can learn from being alive on the eve of finals.

“(The players) are going to learn a lot as we have over the previous 19 games so certainly for this young group everything is an opportunity.”

Roos has no regrets handing over the reins to Simon Goodwin at the end of Melbourne’s season, comfortable his job at the helm is done.

“When I started I knew the job at hand,” he said.

“Knew what I had to do and one of the biggest parts of it was putting the succession plan in place, I’m so pleased that Goody is going to be an amazing coach and the club’s in really good hands with all the people we’ve got involved in the footy club now.”

Originally published as Paul Roos worried about beating Carlton, not making finals