PAUL Roos says Melbourne’s 20-point loss to Carlton on Sunday at the MCG will give his players extra motivation to finish off the 2016 season on a high.
Roos, who will coach his final game for Melbourne against Geelong at Simonds Stadium on Saturday, said Sunday’s loss had closed off a huge month of football for his young side.
“Going into the game against Carlton, there was obviously some real excitement from the players, coaches about where we’re at,” he said in his final installment of Roos Views.
“On the weekend, it just looked like we didn’t have the legs but they [Carlton] are quite a mature team.
“We couldn’t get our game style going so credit to Carlton.
“Our players were really disappointed in their performance but it’s been a big month starting with [a loss to] West Coast and then [wins against] Gold Coast, Hawthorn and Port Adelaide and we just couldn’t sustain it on Sunday.”
Roos said it was important for young teams like Melbourne to learn how to regroup after disappointing losses, even at the end of the season.
“The players go through a range of emotions [after a loss], particularly the disappointment after the game and it’s up to the coaches to show them why it happened – which we did on Monday.
“The players then have Tuesday off so you’re hoping that everyone turns up on Wednesday full of life [as] there’s no point dwelling on it with one game to go.
“Our VFL team [the Casey Scorpions] is also very much in contention for the finals so [you hope] for the boys that turn up in the morning, that the disappointment has turned into excitement to have a crack at the last game.”
Looking ahead to Saturday’s season closer at Simonds Stadium, Roos said Melbourne’s win over Geelong in round 12 last year would give the players’ mindset a positive boost.
“We’re aware that every game is different and both teams have different personnel,” he said.
“The only thing that it [last year’s win] does do is that when the players are driving down the highway [to Simonds], it’s not a negative experience – I think that’s a big part of it.
“It’s an exciting experience and we know that it’s going to be a completely different game and we know that we’re going to have to play even better than we did last year but at least there’s not a negative connotation attached to it.
Roos said his team would not prepare any differently for Saturday’s game.
“We’ll do all of the things that we normally do but it really comes back to mindset.
“If our attitude is right then we’re going to be able to push them [Geelong] and we’re going to be able to give them a really good game.
“As much as Scotty [Chris Scott] will want to win, I’m sure he’d like us to bring our A-game as well so that we can give them a really good and competitive performance and really push them.
“From our point-of-view, we want to beat them and from [Scott’s] point-of-view, he wants to win but given there is a now bye before finals, I would think that even the Geelong coach would be hoping that Melbourne brings some really good footy down there so that’s what we’re going to do.”
