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Paul Roos entered the 2014 season coaching a depleted Melbourne Demons outfit, desperate for any sign that life at the struggling club would get easier. He said 2014 was not about the wins, it was about education.
Melbourne won its first pre-season match against Richmond, with Bernie Vince and Jay Kennedy-Harris impressing. Roos again said it was not about the wins, but about education.
Melbourne started the 2014 AFL season with consecutive embarrassing losses to St Kilda, West Coast and GWS. Roos restated his case.
Melbourne defeated Carlton to gain their first win for the 2014 AFL season. You can guess what Roos said after the match, and he will keep reiterating this message throughout the season as he looks to give the players the guidance they desperately need.
The Melbourne players have been through hell and back in football terms. They have experienced seven different coaches in eight years, losses of 100 points on a regular basis and the tragic deaths of Jim Stynes and Dean Bailey.
The Mark Neeld era nearly destroyed the club – constant losses in devastating fashion, a ridiculous number of game plans which made little to no sense, and appointments of young captains with hardly any experience at AFL football. There was a smell of death around the struggling club, not unlike the smell that hung around the Fitzroy Football Club in its last years.
Trying to undo the damage that the club has been through will be no easy feat. The players have been fed to the wolves of the media with no protection from the coach, while disrespect has been heaped upon the older ‘veterans’ of the club. It’s little wonder the Melbourne players act like a dog that has been mistreated one too many times, with any human that goes near it greeted with wariness.
Paul Roos has come to the club with simple ideas and strategies – the same ideas and strategies that led to Sydney’s golden years from 2005 onward. Roos understands gaining the trust of the players again will be difficult, and he knows that he must educate the players to handle the pressures of AFL football, how to overcome them and subsequently build a team spirit.
Roos has adopted the approach not of a teacher to his pupils, but as a father to his sons. He must nurture and care for his players, protecting and shielding them from the harsh scrutinies that reside within AFL football. He knows he must educate and teach his players how to win, and how to be a successful football club.
He realises that winning is good for the players’ confidence and it will help them grow and learn, but it is not essential at this point in time. He is smart enough to understand that Melbourne will not get close to making the finals this year, as the squad is not yet good or experienced enough.
Roos knows that this year and next will be setting up the foundations of a successful football club for the next senior coach that he appoints to take Melbourne back to a respected and prosperous state. Roos’ job is not to take Melbourne to the flag, but build a strong club that will contend for a premiership in the coming years.
His role now is to nurture and educate the Demons, teaching them how to be successful and smart. The stats do not matter.
What matters is that the players learn and benefit from the work Roos is putting in now so that the next coach can take Melbourne to new heights.
Roos has already worked wonders at Melbourne. Drafting in players such as Bernie Vince, Dom Tyson, Daniel Cross and Viv Michie has boosted a weak Melbourne midfield – yes, Mark Neeld, that is how you implement a proper ‘Moneyball’ system.
He has also improved players like Jimmy Toumpas, who has boosted his game out of sight. Draft picks like Jay Kennedy-Harries, who reminds many of a young Aaron Davey, have provided excitement for Melbourne, while players such as Nathan Jones and James Frawley keep doing what they know best.
After the Swans grand final win in 2012, Bruce McAvaney said that it was “the spirit of the Bloods” that helped them win the flag. That spirit was created by Roos, all the way back in 2005.
If Paul Roos can create a spirit that has survived for close to a decade at Sydney, he can surely create it at Melbourne.
It’s not about the wins, it’s about education.
Keep that in mind, Dees supporters, and know that your club will soon reap the riches of success.
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