MATT Burgan catches up with senior coach Paul Roos in the first of a four part Q&A series on melbournefc.com.au …

MB: How do you reflect on the 2015 season?

PR: Winning the last game was really important for the footy club – to get us to seven wins and a clear improvement on last year. We had some really good wins against Geelong and Richmond – they’re the two that stand out. We played against the Giants in the last round with seven first-year boys and 13 players who had played under 50 games. Overall, the year was really positive, but we’ve got to sort out those really poor losses or the big gaps and lapses in games.

MB: At this early stage, who challenges Hawthorn in 2016?

PR: It’s difficult with free agency now and top-up players. The landscape’s changed pretty dramatically from five years ago, when it was generally acceptable that if you had five, six or seven years up, then you had to have a bit of a dip and then come back up. I think that’s changed. A lot of it is about regeneration for all clubs. Hawthorn has been terrific [at it] and ‘Chip’ (James Frawley) did a great job late in the season and that’s why they got him. [In recent years] Hawthorn also brought in Brian Lake, although he’s now gone, [Shaun] Burgoyne and David Hale, so they’ve done a really good job in trading. Their senior players continue to play well week in week out. I think there will be some challengers to Hawthorn. There are always teams that jump out. I still think Sydney has a really good, tight team with their best 22 and I think Freo and Geelong will regenerate and go again. There will be challengers – there always is – but full credit to Hawthorn. They’ve won three in a row and they fully deserve it.

MB: What’s been the aim this pre-season?

PR: It’s good that we’re in our third year. We’ve shown we can defend really well and we can actually score a lot better, but it’s the combination of the two that we need to get right – the balance. That’s what good teams are able to do. Hawthorn showed that once again, kicking 16 goals to eight in the Grand Final. Freo was up there again, but by [Fremantle coach] Rossy’s (Lyon) own admission, they probably need to score a little bit more. So for us, we’re working on both sides of the ball. The first year was a lot on defence and the second year was a lot more on offense. Pre-season is going to be a real balance and getting that balance right between offense and defence.

MB: You’re entering your third and final season as Melbourne coach. How do you see the team’s prospects in 2016?

PR: I’m really excited. A lot of the things that Peter Jackson, Glen Bartlett and myself set out to do are in place. I think that’s really encouraging from our point of view. We’ve got a really good coaching group and we’ve got a succession plan in place and I believe that Simon [Goodwin] will be fantastic coach. I believe Brendan [McCartney] coming on as a real confidant for Goody [is important] and he’s been terrific as well. We’ve got Casey worked out really well, so a lot of the things that I set out to do – we’ve achieved. Now it’s really the consistency of performance and being a team of competitors – that’s what we really want to do. We sometimes talk about a competitive team and people think that can be about acceptable losses, but it’s more about being a team of competitors every week. We want them to play at 100 per cent and master a game style that we think’s going to be really sustainable for the long term. They’re really the goals for next year.

MB: What does next year look like for you as coach? Just to clarify, you’ll definitely be senior coach in 2016?

PR: Clubs vary anyway – whether it’s Ross Lyon, Alastair Clarkson or John Longmire and for us, it’s what’s the best structure? I’m very much the senior coach, but we believe we can get a real advantage for ourselves – as much as anything else – by handing it over to Goody and giving him some roles. I suspect in the pre-season, Goody will have a really good chance of coaching the team in that period, which is not unusual for coaches – it’s just that we know he’s going to be the coach the following year. Things like managing staff, learning different things, doing his certificate four and going to board meetings – all of those things are really, really valuable. There are little things along the way that we can add to his role that mightn’t even come up now. I’ll certainly be coaching the team and I’ve always been very inclusive anyway, so it doesn’t really change with me, whether it was my first year at Sydney or my last year at Melbourne. I like the other staff to get involved and I like the players to get involved. I like everyone to feel like they have a very important role.

MB: Post 2016, what does it look like for you and your involvement with Melbourne?

PR: I’m really passionate about the club and I want the club to be successful and hopefully we’re successful next year. But making finals, the top four or in playing Grand Finals – I can’t wait for that to happen to the footy club. It’ll be terrific and if I can be part of that in any small way – that’d be great. I really want to focus on next year and Peter [Jackson], Josh [Mahoney] and I will sit down at some point, but we need to keep the club heading in the right direction and we’ll worry about that later.

MB: Has it dawned on you that this is your last season coming up as a senior AFL coach?

PR: Not really. If you look at it that way, you take your eye off the ball, so I’m just excited about having a break and coming back in. It allows you to do some things that you perhaps mightn’t [normally] do – and that’s a good thing. I might be able to help the staff a bit more. If you’re going to get sacked [as a senior coach], you don’t see the end coming, but if you know the end’s coming, you can really help the other staff and push the players a little bit more. You can also hand things over that you mightn’t normally hand over. I really want the club to be successful next year and that’s my main focus.