COACH Paul Roos says he never intended his team to kick just three goals against Collingwood, while he hit back at critics for suggesting Melbourne’s game style was an issue.
Speaking at AAMI Park on Tuesday, the day after Melbourne went down to Collingwood by 33 points at the MCG, Roos said he was frustrated by his side’s lack of goalkicking from the match.
“It bothers me that we only kicked three goals,” he said.
“Our job’s to analyse why. Scoreboards are a reflection of what happens between the arcs and the 160 metres of the field. When you turn the ball over so often, it’s very, very difficult to score and when you have shots at goal and miss – it compounds it.
“Interestingly, there wasn’t a lot of stoppages and people talk about stoppages being ugly. It was just one of those games that both teams found it hard to score once they entered their own [forward] 50.”
Roos said good ‘two-way’ football was “very tiring” and only the best in the competition were capable of producing it on a consistent basis.
“The good two-way sides – the Sydneys, the Freos, Hawthorn and Geelong – they’ve got real experienced players and they’re used to running both ways. They can defend and they can attack,” he said.
“The younger sides and the poorer sides can do one or the other. Last week, our balance was really good against Port and the games that we’ve won. Sometimes it’s out of whack.
“That’s hard, because AFL footy is a hard game and it’s not easy to run both ways. That’s where Collingwood got us in the end. They’re class players and their ability to get out and make scoring opportunities out of those little chances that they have – they did it a lot better than what we did.”
Looking ahead to this Sunday’s clash against the Bombers, Roos said it would be another big challenge, even though captain and 2012 Brownlow Medallist Jobe Watson was now sidelined through injury.
“When you’re a team like us, you’ve got to worry about all of the players. Essendon is a good side and they’ve got a lot more good players than Jobe Watson,” he said.
“We’ve got to prepare for the Essendon footy club, but … we don’t spend a lot of time on the opposition, because of where we’re at as a club. We try and spend a lot of time on ourselves and setting ourselves up on a weekly basis.
“We’re trying to improve on a weekly basis and more of the oppo stuff will come at the end of the year and next year, when you’re trying to take other teams out of their rhythm or drag someone back to the goalsquare.
“Really, most of the stuff is about ourselves and we’re going to have to play really, really well to beat Essendon this week – with or without Jobe.”