PAUL Roos says last Saturday’s thrilling three-point win over the Adelaide Crows at Adelaide Oval ranked right up there with some of his wins in his early days at the Sydney Swans.
Roos said Melbourne’s first win in Adelaide since 2001 was a “terrific” win.
“If we look back to round two and we were beaten by 93 points to West Coast – I think the turnaround since then [has been significant]. We thought we were really good in round one and we could’ve beaten St Kilda and a couple of things didn’t go with us. St Kilda was in really good form in the first three or four weeks of the season, but round two was really disappointing,” he said.
“To resurrect confidence after a 93-point [loss] – I think that’s a big thing to turnaround and to beat Carlton and to play Sydney at the MCG and keep them to nine goals – that’s been the most significant thing about it.
“Then to go over to Adelaide, and beat Adelaide in Adelaide for this football team, certainly from my point of view, it’s a very, very good win and it ranks right up there with some of the early wins at Sydney. Certainly from our point of view, we think it’s really important.”
Despite the win on the road, Roos said it didn’t alter the long term plan for the Demons.
“It probably doesn’t change the destination and how long we think it’s going to take, but to get to that destination, you need some wins along the way to keep the players motivated, the players wedded to the game plan and the players have strong relationships with each other and the coaches,” he said.
Roos said if the club is losing all of the time, it can get “draining and everyone can get wearing on each other”.
“It’s great to have a win and hopefully the players start to think ‘oh gee, this is working and we’re starting to get better, which I think we have been anyway. But you need a win to do that and you can’t keep losing and the coaches are saying ‘we’re getting better’,” he said.
“It’s just terrific to get a win on the board and we’re two wins now, [when we had] two wins for the whole of last year. [We’ve] got to really try and build on that as much as we can.
“Our theme has always been [about] improvement this year and [we’ve got to] really make some hard decisions next year. The coaches have got a better understanding now of players and vice-versa and that’ll continue over the year and in the off-season.
“It doesn’t change how long we take to get there, but certainly there is some significant improvement in the first seven weeks.”
Roos said this Saturday night’s clash against the Western Bulldogs was another important challenge for the Demons.
“We’re probably 18 months behind the Bulldogs in where Brendan [McCartney] had them, so this will be another good test for us – but every game’s a test,” he said.
“Watching the Bulldogs the last couple of weeks – they’re really competitive and now they’re competitive for longer, 115 minutes. Probably when Brendan was taking over, they were an 80 to 90-minute team.
“We were probably a 60-minute team last year, so we’re building to where they are. But I think both coaches want to see 120 minutes. It takes varying times for varying players and varying clubs.
“We felt we were a bit disappointing against the Gold Coast – even though their form has been really good, after the win against Carlton. So we just want to come out and improve on Adelaide and hope everyone plays their role and understands that if we play as a team, we can have some good results.”
