NEW Melbourne coach Paul Roos says a senior assistant coach will be named shortly, with a view to that person taking over from him after two or three years.
“The senior assistant, hopefully we’ll appoint them soon. That’ll be on the basis of them being the coach. I’m really comfortable with that,” Roos told On The Couch on Fox Footy on Monday night.
“I think for the players to get some stability - generally when a coach is appointed for two or three years, you hope they’re going to get through that period, but it’s such a ruthless business that what we’re providing for the Melbourne player group is some real stability for a period of time.
“The assistant we put in place will be the next senior coach, subsequent to the constitution and the board saying ‘this is the guy we want’ – absolutely.”
Roos said his first day at the club on Monday was about setting up the football department structure and looking at recruiting.
The 2005 Sydney Swans premiership coach and 356 game AFL great said his appointment was not like Malcolm Blight’s situation, when St Kilda lured him out of retirement for 2001. Blight didn’t last the season in one of the biggest football stories of the modern era.
“I’ve knocked a couple of jobs back for the same amount of money,” Roos said.
“That’s all I can say. I always knew I was going to get well paid. I’ve said that publicly, so there was never an issue of that.
“I’ve knocked a couple of jobs back over the last couple of years, because the timing wasn’t right. All I’ve tried to do is be really honest throughout the whole process and tried to keep people up to date, as to when it was happening.
“There were a couple of pivotal turning points over that last 12 weeks.”
Roos said he was eager to take on the Melbourne coaching challenge. He said one of his first jobs was to retain key Demons Jack Watts and Colin Sylvia.
“I still see it as a senior coaching role, but the Melbourne Football Club needs a cultural change, and we need to get some really good quality coaches and we need to keep players like Jack Watts and Colin Sylvia,” he said.
“That’s where I really saw it as a challenge.”
Roos said he had briefly spoken to Watts and Sylvia.
“I didn’t ask either of them for an answer,” he said.
“I just said ‘I really want you to be part of this football club’. I think they’re important parts of this football club and I hope they both stay.”
Roos said he was flexible about the prospect of trading pick No. 2 in the upcoming trade period.
“Absolutely, that’s predicated by what you can get for them,” he said.
“We need to get some talent in the football club. That might be for pick two. That might be not. That might mean, we trade pick two.
“We need to get some more midfield depth and more midfield talent within the football club.”
Roos was also open minded about Melbourne’s captaincy for 2014.
“The commitment I’ll make to them is to make them the best possible players,” he said.
“If that means they’ll be captain, they’ll be captain.
“If it doesn’t, they won’t be captain, but I’ll be very respectful to those two boys – they’re terrific lads.”
