Paul Roos (Australian rules footballer)
Encyclopedia
Paul Roos is a former Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

 player and coach in the VFL
VFL
VFL can refer to:Sport* Victorian Football League, an Australian rules football league formerly known as the Victorian Football Association prior to 1996....

 and Australian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

.

Playing the majority of his career with Fitzroy, Roos was one of the teams greats, captaining the side for a long time and was acknowledged as its best player for several seasons, being named in the Fitzroy team of the 20th Century.

Roos also achieved league recognition as an all time great. He is in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, was named All-Australian seven times, received the league's (MVP) most valuable player award and represented Victoria on several occasions in State of Origin. He is the AFL/VFL record holder for the number of games played wearing the number 1 jumper – which he wore in every one of his 356 games at Fitzroy and Sydney.

His coaching record includes steering Sydney to a record number of finals series and a 2005 premiership. Roos is the only interim coach to win a premiership, having been appointed interim Swans coach midway through the 2002 AFL season
2002 AFL season
-Round 2:-Round 3:-Round 4:-Round 5 :-Ladder:All teams played 22 games during the home and away season, for a total of 176...

.

Paul Roos is one of Australia's most admired sporting personalities and is also a newspaper columnist and professional speaker. He is regarded as one of Australia's leading motivational keynote presenters. At the end of the 2009 season Roos announced that he would retire at the end of the 2010 season.

Early life

Roos grew up in the Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 suburb of Donvale
Donvale, Victoria
Donvale is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 20 km east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Manningham. At the 2006 Census, Donvale had a population of 11,667...

 and played junior football with Beverley Hills Football Club in Doncaster East
Doncaster East, Victoria
Doncaster East is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 19 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Manningham...

. He attended Whitefriars College from 1975 until 1981.

Fitzroy

Roos was recruited by the Fitzroy Football Club
Fitzroy Football Club
The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897...

, where he was to play the majority of his career. His first league game was round 4 on Sunday, 18 April 1982, against the Sydney Swans
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...

 at the Sydney Cricket Ground
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...

. He developed a reputation for being a solid defender, playing primarily in the centre half-back
Centre half-back
In Australian rules football, the centre half-back refers to a position in the half-back line of a football field.Centre half back is considered a key position in defence. Examples of centre half-backs include Glen Jakovich, Darren Mead, Tom Harley and Chris Tarrant....

 position.

Roos captained Fitzroy 122 times in seasons 1988–1990 and 1992–1994 during difficult times with the constant threat of merger and relocation. In 1986, Roos polled a career high 16 votes in the Brownlow Medal
Brownlow Medal
The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...

 to finish runner-up. He ended his career with 121 Brownlow votes (98 with Fitzroy and 23 with Sydney).

During his playing career at Fitzroy, he was selected as an All-Australian in 1987, 1988, 1991 (as captain) and 1992 (as captain). He also represented Victoria in State of Origin
Interstate matches in Australian rules football
Australian rules football matches between teams representing Australian colonies/states and territories have been held since 1879. For most of the 20th century, the absence of a national club competition and international matches meant that football games between state representative teams were...

 as captain.

Sydney

He finished his career at the Sydney Swans
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...

 with 87 games and 19 goals during seasons 1995–1998. While Roos was at the Swans, he was one of Sydney's best in the 1996 AFL Grand Final
1996 AFL Grand Final
The 1996 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the North Melbourne Football Club and Sydney Swans, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 28 September 1996. It was the 100th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football...

 loss to North Melbourne
Kangaroos Football Club
The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...

. He again qualified as an All-Australian in 1996 and 1997.

In his playing days, he was often cheered by supporters with a distinctive, deep rolling roar of "ROOOOOOS!".

USA

When his career ended, Roos spent some time in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and coached the national side to victory over Canada
Northwind
The Northwind is Canada's national Australian rules football team that represents the clubs and teams of AFL Canada.Northwind players are selected from the best Canadian-born players from the club teams across Canada....

. He is often credited as one of the key people in the success of the fledgling United States Australian Football League
United States Australian Football League
The United States Australian Football League is the governing body for Australian rules football in the United States. It was conceived in 1996 and organized in 1997....

, establishing networks with key people in the US.

Sydney Swans

Returning to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and the Swans, Roos then became an assistant coach to Rodney Eade
Rodney Eade
Rodney "Rocket" Eade is a former Australian rules footballer and the former coach of the Sydney Swans and Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League...

. Part-way through the 2002 season, with the Swans' record getting worse by the week, Eade was sacked. The club administration started the search for a new coach and it is widely believed that negotiations with Terry Wallace
Terry Wallace
Terry Wallace is a former professional Australian rules football player and coach.As a player, his career spanned three VFL/AFL clubs; most notably Hawthorn where he played in three premierships as well as achieving All-Australian selection, and two Best and Fairests with the Footscray Football Club...

 were at an advanced stage. Nevertheless, when Eade finally went with several games of the minor round still to be played, Roos was appointed caretaker coach for the remainder of the 2002 season, a move hugely popular with Swans fans, who remembered his great contribution to the club as a player.

As caretaker coach, Roos immediately transformed the dispirited Swans players. Several who had struggled under Eade blossomed under his leadership. Surprisingly, the Swans won most of their remaining games that year, and the fans soon let it be known who they wanted as coach by reviving the famous "ROOOOS" call. Despite this, the club administration continued their talks with Wallace (and perhaps others). Finally however, they were unable to ignore the players' own support for Roos, when, after a win late in the season, all the players surrounded Roos on the field and, unprecedentedly, themselves joined in the "ROOOOS" call. The administrators knew when they were beaten, and appointed Roos coach for the 2003 season (despite reportedly having to pay Wallace a considerable amount to unwind their almost-concluded deal with him).

Under Roos' coaching, Sydney participated in every finals series between 2003 and 2008. They made it to the preliminary final stage in 2003, the semifinal stage in 2004, won the Premiership in 2005 and almost retained it in 2006, losing the Grand Final by only one point, and then got eliminated in the first week of the 2007 finals. They made it to the second week of the 2008 finals. But 2009 was the second time under Roos' leadership that they didn't make the finals.

Roos also implemented a policy of giving up first round draft picks in exchange for players from other clubs: namely, Darren Jolly
Darren Jolly
Darren Jolly is a professional Australian rules football player currently playing for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League . Jolly has previously played for Melbourne, the Sydney Swans...

, Ted Richards
Ted Richards
Ted Richards is an Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League .He was recruited as the number 27 draft pick in the 2000 AFL Draft from Xavier College...

, Peter Everitt
Peter Everitt
Peter "Spida" Everitt is a former Australian rules footballer who played for St Kilda, Hawthorn Hawks and the Sydney Swans in the AFL. He made his debut for St Kilda in 1993 and in 2003 began playing for Hawthorn. Everitt was traded to the Sydney Swans at the end of 2006. Following the club's 2008...

, Martin Mattner
Martin Mattner
Martin Mattner is an Australian rules football who plays for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League. He was traded to Sydney from the Adelaide Crows in October 2007 in exchange for Draft pick number 28....

, Rhyce Shaw
Rhyce Shaw
Rhyce Shaw is an Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League.-Career:Shaw, son of former Collingwood captain Ray was drafted to Collingwood in the 1999 AFL Draft under the father-son rule at pick no.18...

 and Shane Mumford
Shane Mumford
Shane Mumford is an Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League , until he was traded to the Sydney Swans at the end of 2009.-Early career:...

 in the years 2004–2009 inclusive.. Only Jolly and Everitt are no longer at the club, and the other players earned more game-time than they did at their original clubs; this policy paying off for Paul Roos.

2005

In 2005, Roos' coaching style was criticized by AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou
Andrew Demetriou
Andrew Demetriou is the chief executive officer of the Australian Football League and a former Australian rules footballer. He is the youngest son of Greek-Cypriot immigrants and, before becoming a VFL player, he worked in the dental import industry...

, who referred to the Swans' defensive and negative style of play (presumably the tactics of flooding
Flooding (Australian football)
Flooding is a tactic used in the sport of Australian rules football. It involves the coach releasing players in the forward line from their set positions and directing them to the opposition forward area, congesting the area and making it more difficult for the opposition to score. It is commonly...

, and retaining possession through short chip kicks). Demetriou even went so far as to claim that the Swans would never win a premiership playing such an unattractive style of football. As a result of Demetriou's criticisms, the Swans were labeled by the media, especially in Melbourne, as the ugly ducklings.

Roos and his Swans were condemned for the way they played against St. Kilda
St. Kilda Football Club
The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed The Saints, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The club plays in the Australian Football League, the sport's premier league....

 in Round 10, 2005, with most media, led by Demetriou, describing them as "disgusting" and "ugly". There were also claims the Swans "misbehaved" during the match. The Swans lost the match 15.11.(101) to 8.10.(58) http://www.theage.com.au/news/Geoff-McClure/Pleasant-Sunday-afternoon/2005/05/30/1117305558012.html, a result which appeared to be the turning point in the Swans' season, but gained revenge in the Preliminary Final with a 96–65 win, denying the Saints a shot at their second premiership. Coincidentally, in the Grand Final, they also kicked 8.10.(58), this time winning against the West Coast Eagles
West Coast Eagles
The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League. The club is based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and played its first games in the 1987 season. Its current home ground is Subiaco Oval...

.

Roos proved his critics wrong by leading the Swans to their first premiership in 72 years, with a hard-fought win against the West Coast Eagles
West Coast Eagles
The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League. The club is based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and played its first games in the 1987 season. Its current home ground is Subiaco Oval...

 in the most thrilling Grand Final for a number of years. Many believe that the AFL's change of rules for the 2006 season was in direct response to the Swans' style of play, but this was later denied by the AFL.

2006

In the 2006 pre-season, Roos briefly returned to the US with his Swans side for an exhibition match
Australian rules football exhibition matches
Australian rules football has been introduced to a wide range of places around Australia and the world since the code originated in Victoria in 1859....

 against the Kangaroos at UCLA, and suggested that this should become an annual event.

Things became serious when the Swans lost at home to the rampant Adelaide Crows
Adelaide Crows
The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed The Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia, playing in the Australian Football League ....

 by 39 points, 15.11 (101) to 8.14 (62). Roos cited a lack of hunger and even went so far as to say that his team were "clearly incapable of winning the premiership", but they managed to reach the Grand Final against the West Coast Eagles
West Coast Eagles
The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League. The club is based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and played its first games in the 1987 season. Its current home ground is Subiaco Oval...

, losing by one point.

2007

In Round 12, Sydney faced Collingwood
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

, and lost in a game that Roos described as the worst game he had ever coached in his five-year stint at the Swans. He responded by dropping star forward Barry Hall
Barry Hall
Barry Hall is a former Australian rules footballer. Hall is considered to be one of the best forwards of the modern era, being named All-Australian, leading his club's goalkicking on nine occasions and captaining the Sydney Swans to their 2005 AFL Grand Final victory...

, who had been struggling with injury.

Roos also accused of tanking in order to gain a third successive priority draft pick
Priority draft pick
The priority draft pick is a type of draft selection in the Australian Football League's AFL Draft. Priority draft picks are additional draft picks, located at or near the start of the draft, which are given only to the poorest performing teams, to provide additional help for those teams to improve...

 when the Blues lost its final 11 matches of the regular season, most by lopsided margins (which ultimately led to the sacking of his Carlton counterpart Denis Pagan
Denis Pagan
Denis Pagan is a former Australian rules football coach and player in the VFL/AFL. He is current coach of Northern Knights in TAC Cup.-Playing career:...

). This included a 62-point pasting from Roos' Swans in Round 15, the penultimate round before Pagan was sacked.

2008

In early 2008 Roos was alleged to have been in the centre of a match-fixing controversy involving wingman Jarrad McVeigh
Jarrad McVeigh
Jarrad McVeigh is a New South Wales-born AFL player with the Sydney Swans. He is the younger brother of Essendon's Mark McVeigh.- Biography :...

. His alleged instructions to McVeigh was to "go forward, just don't kick a goal" during the final stages of the Swans' NAB Cup match against Hawthorn
Hawthorn Football Club
The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...

, which the Swans lost by two points. Roos was cleared of any wrongdoing by the AFL one month later, as it turned out to be a joke regarding McVeigh's poor accuracy during the 2007 AFL season
2007 AFL season
The 2007 AFL Season was the 111th season of the Australian Football League, the highest-level professional Australian rules football league in Australia...

.

He also coached from the bench in the first match of the 2008 season in which his Swans were beaten by St Kilda in a tight match.

In 2008 the Swans made the finals in 6th position and then made a terrific 35 point come-from-behind win against the North Melbourne Kangroos in the elimination final.

2009

2009 turned out to be Roos' worst ever season at the Swans, and the Swans' worst season since 1995, when it failed to make the finals, winning only nine games (five of which came in the first nine rounds of the season) and finishing in 12th position. At the end of the 2009 season Roos announced that he would retire and step down as Sydney coach at the end of the 2010 season.

2010: Retirement

Roos coached out the 2010 AFL season
2010 AFL season
-Premiership season:The draw for the 2010 AFL Premiership Season is not a random selection of matches, but rather is planned by the AFL. It is intended to produce a balanced draw while also providing the fans and television networks with blockbuster games. In a competition with 16 teams and 22...

 where the Sydney Swans returned to the finals after last year's absence from the finals. They defeated by five points in its home elimination final but the following week was eliminated by the in the second week of the finals by the same margin. He retired at the end of the season and was replaced by assistant John Longmire
John Longmire
John Longmire is the current coach of the Sydney Swans. As a player, he represented the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League from 1988 to 1999.-Early years:...

 in a succession plan. In all he coached 202 games for Sydney, including 16 finals, 9 of which were won.

Roos is now a commentator and analyst with Fox Sports, calling games mainly involving the Sydney Swans. In recent times Roos has been linked to coaching jobs at , and but has repeatedly ruled himself out of coaching another AFL club, stating that he "doesn't want to coach ever again" and that "he can't see himself doing it".

2011 coaching controversy

During a juniors' match in 2011, Roos ran onto the field to defend one of his junior players who had been injured heavily in a collision. His actions were condemned by the AFL public and Andrew Demetriou
Andrew Demetriou
Andrew Demetriou is the chief executive officer of the Australian Football League and a former Australian rules footballer. He is the youngest son of Greek-Cypriot immigrants and, before becoming a VFL player, he worked in the dental import industry...

, but Roos was not suspended due to the nature of the incident, instead he was reprimanded and afterwards he acknowledged that "he should have known better".

Personal life

In 2008, Paul Roos was named Australian Father of the Year
Australian Father Of The Year award
The Australian Father Of The Year award is an Australian award to honor and showcase a fine example of Australian fatherhood. Spanning over fifty years, the ‘Australian Father of the Year’ has been awarded to high-profile, famous fathers, from prime ministers & politicians to sportsmen and business...

. The award recognises a high profile father for their significant contribution to family and community, and is presented by the Australian Father’s Day Council, in conjunction with organising charity, The Shepherd Centre. His two sons go to Cranbrook
Cranbrook School Sydney
Cranbrook School is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school for boys, located in Bellevue Hill and Rose Bay, both eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

.

External links

  • Paul Roos Official Paul Roos Website
  • "1977 3C – 2nd Row 2nd from left"
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