PAUL Roos says coaching against your good mates, as opposed to playing against them, is a much easier proposition.
Speaking on Dee TV’s Roos’ Views in the lead-up to the red and blue’s clash against Fremantle at TIO Stadium on Saturday night, the Melbourne coach said there was no extra feeling guiding his side against his close friend this round – former Fitzroy teammate and his ex-Swans assistant Ross Lyon.
“Coaching’s different to playing. You play against your mate – it’s pretty hard, particularly as you’re directly opposed to them,” Roos said.
“Whereas a coach, once you get in the coaches’ box – we see it as players versus players and there’s not a lot we can do. Most of our stuff’s already done.
“From my point of view, I enjoy it and I enjoy catching up with the guys I know well before the game, Once the game’s on, we try and beat each other and then most of the time after the game, [we send] a ‘well done’ text or phone call and then move on pretty quick.
“But we all know what we’re there to do, but we all remain pretty close friends, but once the game’s on – it’s his team versus my team – and hopefully I’ve prepared my team pretty well.”
But Roos said he would probably see Lyon before the match in Darwin.
“I’m sure I’ll catch up with him at some point. We share a lot of football stories, but nothing too specific to Melbourne and Freo this week,” he said.
“He’s done a terrific job with his footy team – they were very unlucky last year. They played in the Grand Final and if they keep going the way they’re going, they’re going to be right up there at the end of this season as well.
“For us … hopefully we put up a good product and play as well as we possibly can. We played another high quality team – Port in Alice Springs and we had a really good game there. Hopefully we can reproduce that and do it for longer.”
Roos said Melbourne’s trip to the Northern Territory was timely, as he saw plenty of benefits traveling away from home.
“I must admit that as a previous interstate coach, you got a bit tired travelling towards the end of the year,” he said.
“[But] as a coach of a Melbourne-based team, I think it’s great for the group to have a couple of nights eating together and changing the meetings up.
“There is a sharper focus and less distractions and everyone’s together, so I think it’s a great opportunity for us.”
Roos acknowledged Melbourne’s opposition was set to go to another level in the next three rounds – against Fremantle, Geelong and Port Adelaide – but he was also excited by the opportunity.
“For us, it’s knowing where we’re trying to get to,” he said.
“This year was always going to be about improvement and finding a consistent level of performance, competing and game plan, so that continues – no matter who we play, There’s another eight games to go and every game is an opportunity for us to get better.
“It starts this week and then the following week is against Geelong and then Port [Adelaide] after that, so we’ve got three good teams, which is fantastic, because it’s the end result for us that we’re after. We’ve got to play against the best teams to have an understanding of how big that gap is.”
