Football has forever presented its challenges. How to outmanoeuvre Grenville Dietrich when you’re caught out one on one in the goal square?
How to avoid the ubiquity of Eddie McGuire? Where to hang that Simon Minton-Connell lithograph so it will look its most awesome?
Or how to coach Melbourne.
She can be a tough task mistress.
Thankfully, there are those in the footballing world who are not afraid to take up a challenge. To tackle them ball and all. To happily sing along to the John Lennon mantra of there being no problems but only solutions.
Most of these people are certifiably insane. Paul Roos, one assumes, is not yet one of them.
Roos takes the reins of a club that is less thoroughbred and more obstinate nag. Form that reads six wins from its last 44 starts – and of those only a couple against the more experienced conveyances.
Moreover they have lacked a definitive racing pattern, shown little improvement and have put in more than a few runs that would have others converted to Clag.
Off-field hasn’t been all sunshine, rainbows and salt licks either.
Brock McLean – who would have been better off remembering 2009 as a pre-twerking Miley happy time – recalled instead enough questionable activity to initiate a tanking investigation. Three coaches have been flipped in three years. And equal criticism has been levelled at both the club’s recruitment strategy and leadership choices.
But perhaps most damaging of all is that the club has failed to sell to the football observing world any indication as to where it’s at.
A team that has finished no better than 12th in the last seven years – and bottom three in four of them – looks a fair way from a premiership tilt.
And conversely, there is only so much rebuilding that can be done before you start to get that Jocelyn Wildenstein freak on.
Still, there could be no better choice than Paul Roos to change the direction of the club.
Sure the turning circle may yet prove to be more Ivan Maric and less Cyril Rioli, but there is surely a pervasive optimism that comes with the appointment.
In Roos they have a player who was seven times All Australian, a coach with a winning record and a premiership, and a respected football observer of the finest calibre. No better man to give any club hope.
The interesting bit will be how he goes about it.
To the outsider, Melbourne looks to be in stark contrast with the Swans side Roos inherited in 2002. Apples and Oranges. Peter Filandia and Gary Ablett.
Certainly, Sydney was certainly no basket case. They had finished top eight the year prior under Rodney Eade and despite an ordinary start to 2002 still managed to win six of its last ten games from the commencement of Roos’ tenure.
It was enough to suggest the Swans were OK – and enough to ensure the populist support of the new coach.
There was cattle on that Sydney farm. Blue chip stock in the likes of Adam Goodes, Jude Bolton, Brett Kirk and Tadhg Kennelly. A midfield with depth. A power forward in Barry Hall and an offsider in Michael O’Loughlin. And a back line that would require only minor Bolton mark II tweaking.
Just to prove it, 14 players from Roos’ initial squad would go on to make it to the 2005 premiership starting 18.
Whether Roos has inherited a similar playing platform at Melbourne is to be seen. Perhaps – much like Lindsay’s mindset facing a set shot on a soggy MCG – most of us remain the doubting Thomas.
Roos’ further advantage when he took on the Sydney coaching role was that he had already served time as an assistant. An opportunity to assess the playing group and to develop knowledge of its shortcomings.
From that he was positioned to orchestrate a ‘trade to fit’ recruitment process that would become a Swans hallmark.
Roos developed with Sydney a style that was as much maligned as it was successful.
A defence-oriented adult version of keepy-off that critics labelled one part boring to two parts ugly. A footballing cocktail that would have the purists swearing off the drink and Andrew Demetriou declaring it a mix that wouldn’t win them a flag.
They did. The first in 72 years. And it took only three seasons for Roos to deliver it.
It’s been 49 years since the Demons last won the premiership. The fact that under the new coach they won’t in the next three years is not a sentiment of ill-will, but a sense of pragmatism over optimism.
Unlike the Swans before them, Melbourne still need a list restructure, Roos still needs time at the club, and there still needs to be the implementation of a playing style that is both competitive and sustainable.
But like a Star Wars prequel, what Roos brings is the sense of hope.
It can be measured already by the influx of new members and will become more measurable by any improvements the team make over the next season.
Steps towards the longer term success. Steps that desperately need to be made. And steps every Demon fan should enjoy watching.
Melbourne got the most wanted man in football – but perhaps more importantly the responsibility that came with it.
There are no more excuses and no-one left to blame. This is line in the sand stuff.
I just hope to Hades the Dees are up to the challenge.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.
Round 5 of the AFL provided plenty of action, from big scorelines to upset wins and pressure starting to build on some clubs and coaches already.
Brisbane forward Charlie Cameron has been handed a one-match suspension for a dangerous tackle on Jake Lever during the Lions' Thursday night win over…
19 months ago, a banged-up Brisbane came to the MCG as heavy underdogs, faced a formidable Melbourne outfit that stood among the premiership favourites,…
Geelong has been crafty and creative in its list management and has quietly assembled a very exciting young group of midfielders and half-forwards.
Brisbane co-captain Lachie Neale will be looking to lead his team to a victory against Melbourne in what will be his 250th AFL game.
Melbourne forward Kysaiah Pickett's one match suspension for a high bump on Adelaide's Jake Soligo has been upheld by the AFL Tribunal. The Demons…
