Paul Roos tells Brisbane Lions and Melbourne he's not interested in either coaching job

IN-DEMAND Paul Roos tells both Brisbane Lions and Melbourne he's "definitely not interested" in taking either coaching job.

Roos Couch

THE MAN regarded as the favourite for the Brisbane Lions and Melbourne coaching jobs, Paul Roos, has told both clubs he is "definitively not interested" in taking the roles on next season.

"I’ve said to both of them definitively that I’m not interested in doing it."

Roos said being linked to coaching vacancies did get him thinking about a return to the coach's box, which in turn simply convinced him he was not ready to embrace that all-consuming lifestyle.

Lions need a coaching knockout

"When I finished at Sydney it was for good," Roos said. "To coach again is a long, long road to travel to get back to a position where you'd want to do it. So it would require a major change in mindset."Both clubs hope he will change his mind, with Lions chairman Angus Johnson contacting Roos yesterday about the vacant position.

"Clearly through the process you start thinking about coaching again, but if the question is put to me, 'Will you coach Melbourne?' or 'Will you coach Brisbane?' the answer is no at this particular time."

"You wonder about things like 'What would it look like? Would you move interstate?' those sorts of things," Roos said. "But I'm nowhere near 100 per cent certain I want to coach again, and I think you absolutely have to be 100 per cent to do it."

Roos Couch

He rejected the theory he was holding out to create a bidding war for his services.

"I would hope people would consider my reputation, appreciate my honesty in my time in footy," he said.

"I know that I would get well paid. I don't think there's any doubt about that.

"To be brutally honest, what I said when I was approached by both clubs was: 'Don't worry about money, the issue is getting my head around whether I would want to coach again, before anyone even raises money'.

"If Angus (Johnson) calls me - and he texted me today (Friday) - I'm not interested in playing one club off against another. It's always been a case of do I want to it? and if I did then it would be a matter of which situation is better for me?"

Roos laughed off the suggestion he might take over the reins at Essendon, were James Hird to be suspended by the AFL for bringing the game into disrepute.

"I mean, nobody even knows whether that would exist or not, so to talk about that is laughable," Roos said.

"Having been in the media I think I've got a greater understanding of how these things work.

"If I wasn't, I'd probably be a bit more frustrated.

"But I understand people have got every right to raise these questions, because they don't know me as a person.

"But all I've said is that if anything were to change I'd tell people straight away.

"There are certainly some things about coaching that you enjoy, that you can't get from anywhere else.

"And I've had a chance to think about them over the past couple of weeks and months, but you've got to get to the point where it's everything you want to do, not just one or two reasons why you'd want to do it again."

Roos declined to put a rule through ever coaching at AFL level again.

"I'm mindful of never saying never, simply because people will say 'Oh you said back then that you'd never coach again'," he said. "So I'm not going to say that because I really don't know."