COACH Paul Roos says the decision to not offer Daniel Cross a contract for 2016 was “a really hard decision”.

Speaking at AAMI Park on Friday, Roos said it was never an easy situation with a player such as Cross.

“We’ve seen Scotty (Brad Scott) go through at Geelong and I went through it at Sydney and there is no use by date on the back of their jumper,” he said.

“I said to Crossy ‘you can’t read the back of the jumper and say September 5, 2015’. It just doesn’t happen that way.

“It goes back to the original conversation we had with Daniel about coming to the club and developing young players and being in the best 22 every week. It’s not an easy decision to make.”

Roos said Cross’ management was eager to know what was happening with the 32-year-old for 2016.

“They (Cross’ management) really wanted a decision before the season ended and probably our preference would’ve been to wait post-season to see what else transpired through trade week, so that would’ve been my preference,” he said.

“But I understand Daniel’s position and Pickers (Liam Pickering) – you understand if you are playing your last game, you want to know. We fast-tracked the decision a fair bit and then you’re crystal-balling who we could possibly get in and what the team looks like.

“I’m trying to be as honest as I can and at the moment we’ve got eight players out of the team that we believe would be in the team, if we didn’t have injuries. So they’re all the factors we take into consideration.”

Roos said he actually preferred players to finish their career at the top of their game.

“You’d actually prefer the players to play well at the end of their career than play poorly,” he said.

“You’d prefer them to play well and whilst they don’t see that at the time, because you’re actually trying to predict the drop off … it’s a long time between now and round one next year.

“I don’t mind the fact that he’s actually playing good footy and I hope he plays another good game on the weekend.”

Roos said he was unsure what was happening with out-of-contract Demon Jeremy Howe, who plays his 100^th game for the club against Greater Western Sydney at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

“To my knowledge, they really haven’t asked for an offer yet,” he said.

“Jeremy’s got to finish off the year really well … and probably like a lot of other players now – they weight up a lot of options.

“Exactly where it’s at, I’m not 100 per cent certain.”

Meanwhile, Roos praised rookie Mitch White, who will make his AFL debut against GWS.

“He’s a good rebounding defender,” he said,

“He’s been a really good listening. He’s a left-footer and has got good endurance and good speed. He’s a really coachable kid, so he’ll probably play somewhere in the back six or seven.”

“He’s been really consistent … so it’s a good story.”