MATT Burgan catches up with senior coach Paul Roos in the second of a four part Q&A series on melbournefc.com.au …
MB: The football department has undergone a restructure over the off-season. Can you offer an insight into that?
PR: I think it’s really good. We started talking about it, with about a month to go in the season. Josh [Mahoney] is terrifically proactive in making sure the footy department is at the cutting edge. Development tends to focus on the first, second and third year players, but we believe Brendan can really head up the development department, which includes Nathan Jones and Bernie Vince. With Goody taking control of ball movement and training, plus some game style as well, Daniel McPherson’s role now becomes critical. It’s a role that exists at other clubs and we haven’t had it here before. He’s in charge of our game style for our VFL side, so it’s almost a one stop shop, where I can say ‘Frosty (McPherson), we need to work more on this’, so that’s a really, really important role. We’ve also seen this year how we’ve improved at Casey and the guys coming in were a lot better prepared. Frosty now has a super important role. There have been some really good changes and I’m looking forward to continuing the leadership stuff with Jimmy Plunkett and continuing to drive the standards and behaviours with the staff as well and not just the players, so I think it’s really positive.
MB: What areas will you be involved in more this year as part of the transition?
PR: I’ll be spending more time with the medical department and the fitness department. I’ll be spending more time with the development department and general groups of players – whether that’s younger players or the leadership group, which I was working with anyway last season. I’ll be devoting more time with Jimmy Plunkett from Leading Teams and spending a lot more formal and informal time with staff. It’s something that when the season gets underway, we tend to forget about and we get into our offices. With the set-up we’ve got, I think it’s important to get out of my office and get among the staff and get among the players and talk about what we want to achieve as a footy club.
MB: You’ve had one season each with Simon Goodwin and Brendan McCartney. Can you offer an insight into them?
PR: I reckon they’re both really significant appointments. Goody came here before Macca, but I think Macca’s appointment was equally important. They’re both really good mates and they challenge each other. When you are a senior coach, you need a good mate, but someone who can say ‘hey, I wouldn’t have done that or have you seen that?’ I know Goody and Macca have got a great relationship and both of them have been terrific for me. Goody’s got great organisational skills and it helps all of the staff really well and Macca’s got a great feel for footy, having been a senior coach. It’s always good to have another [person who has been a] senior coach [at the club]. The text messages I got from Goody and Macca, particularly Macca, after losses was [encouraging]. He would say ‘don’t worry we’re heading in the right direction’. Those things are really valuable. The great thing about our staff is that everyone gets on well, but we challenge each other. Everyone’s here for the right reasons.
