COACH Paul Roos is hopeful soon to be retired Demon Daniel Cross will take up a role in the football department next year.

Cross has been offered a position as development and rehab coach and Roos said the 32-year-old would be a great acquisition to the football department. 

“He’s got a sports science background and he’s done some study in that area and that’s his passion. But we’d like to talk about a role that helps him involved in the development of players and running with them,” he said on Roos’ Views.

“If he wants to play [for Casey in the VFL], then that’s probably another conversation as well, so we’re just starting the conversation of what he might want to do.

“The first part of it is that he was very keen to play [on] and it’s just getting over the disappointment of his career ending. He had an idea that that was going to happen, but it still comes as a bit of a shock.”

Roos said it was never easy telling players such as Cross – who will play his 249^th match and final AFL game against GWS at Etihad Stadium on Sunday – that their career was over.

“[It’s never easy telling] the guys that give 100 per cent – they’re the really difficult ones,” he said.

“The guys that give 70 per cent or 80 per cent – they’re pretty easy [to tell]. But the guys that give 100 per cent all of the time – they’re really difficult.

“You listen to Scotty (Chris Scott) from Geelong [talk about retiring players] and none of us know when the time’s right. You’ve just got to use your experience and be guided by the other coaches around and what you see. But it’s not an exact science and we’re the first ones to admit that.”

Roos said the club wanted to inform Cross of its plans before the end of the season.

“We spoke to Crossy’s management and we’ve been keeping him informed for a while now, in terms of our thoughts. They wanted to know before the season finished – as you can imagine, so it was tough,” he said.

“It was tough with a guy like him because he was still playing really good football and as I said to the players ‘there is no use by date on the back of your jumper, when you pull it over’.

“We just felt there was an opportunity – hopefully – that he takes up in the footy department, because we really value him and want him to stay on at the footy club. Unfortunately, as he said ‘fairytales don’t always happen’.”