COACH Paul Roos says the improvement of all players across the board has been one of the most satisfying aspects of his coaching tenure at Melbourne so far.
Roos said the development of players such as Alex Neal-Bullen and Billy Stretch in their first year had delighted him, but he added that players at all ages and level had improved.
“The pleasing thing is that we’ve seen a lot of young players play and on the weekend we had Alex Neal-Bullen and Billy Stretch [take another step]. Even though injuries have been really frustrating, maybe those guys wouldn’t have got a chance if we didn’t have as many players out of the team,” he told Dee TV.
“I just like the way most of our players are responding.
“We’ve certainly played some poor footy, but when guys are really sticking to their roles, and really listening to their leaders and listening to their coaches, we seem to be a pretty good team, regardless of personnel.”
Roos said he had seen particular improvement from the first to third year players.
“We saw Jesse Hogan not play on the weekend and he’s been terrific this year, as everyone knows, but I just like the [improvement of the] young guys,” he said.
“Unfortunately, Kenty (Dean Kent) got injured, but he started the year off well and Jay Kennedy-Harris started the year off well and [Christian] Salem was terrific early in the season. Even [Sam] Frost didn’t play many games, but he looked really good.
“We’re seeing a lot of Angus Brayshaw at the moment and we’re seeing a lot of Jesse Hogan, so a lot of those young guys – they’re the unknowns [entering the season], because you don’t know what they’re going to be like.”
Equally, Roos said he had seen improvement in veterans such as Bernie Vince and Nathan Jones.
“In terms of improvement, I think all of our players are still improving. Bernie Vince is the third oldest player [at the club] and his last month has been as good as I’ve seen him play. Nathan Jones’ last three weeks have been terrific. Crossy is still playing great footy,” he said.
“The big thing for us, as coaches, is to coach everyone and not have preconceived ideas [and say] ‘oh well, he’s not going well’ or ‘he’s going fantastic’.
“The guys that are going well can still improve. We don’t want to right anyone off and we don’t want to say ‘oh well, he’s not playing well at the moment and he’s in the seconds’. So that’s really the key for us as a coaching group.”
Even the players on the edge of selection had developed, according to Roos.
“There is no doubt the depth has grown and this is not a criticism of Dean Terlich or Matty Jones, but they were third and fourth in the best and fairest [respectively] two years ago. The fact that there are so many more players that are in the team and are available [ahead of Terlich and Jones, shows our improvement],” he said.
“But we still see Matty Jones play terrific footy. He came in on the weekend – and he’s been in and out of the team – but he kicked two goals and played on [Corey] Enright.
