PAUL Roos says Fremantle is the frontrunner at this stage of the year and looks set to be “at the pointy end of the season”.
With his team set to come up against the undefeated Freo at the MCG on Sunday, Roos indicated the Dockers had been the outstanding team of 2015 so far.
“Their (Fremantle) first month has been trying because they’ve played Geelong in Geelong and they’ve played Port and Sydney and then West Coast in the derby, which is always a tough game,” he said on Roos’ Views.
“They’ve had a pretty tough month and they’ve come out of it with four [wins] and zero [losses] and they’re playing some of the best football in the competition – both offensively and defensively.
“They’ve got to be a genuine chance to be at the pointy end of the year in September.”
Roos said he would catch-up with good mate and Fremantle coach Ross Lyon before the match.
“We know each other pretty well. We know how they want to play and they know how we want to play, so it’s just a matter of whether we can stop them and whether they can stop us,” he said.
“I enjoy catching up with friends, particularly ones you don’t see often.
“We’ll catch up [pre-match], but I’m sure we won’t exchange teams or too many notes about the game, but we love talking generally about footy.”
Roos played down the ‘coach versus coach’ aspect in matches.
“Once games start, it’s not me versus Ross or [Alastair] Clarkson versus [John] Longmire or whoever it might be. It’s really team versus team,” he said.
“We coach hard against each other and once the game finishes, you move onto the next game.
“The two and a half hours [on game day] is pretty intense, but all I can do is prepare our team and I’m sure that’s the same philosophy that he has.”
Reflecting on Melbourne’s 32-point win over Richmond at the MCG last Friday night, Roos said “it was a good effort for four quarters”.
“We were really pleased last Friday night,” he said.
“I thought they jumped us early and then we were able to compete with them for the rest of the game and have a good win.
“This week is a terrific challenge against Freo – they’re undefeated and in pretty good form.”
