Universal Love MFC Supporters Celebration thread - Norm Smith, thanks for releasing us!

I will now?

  • Die happy

    Votes: 38 69.1%

  • Be fisted forever

    Votes: 5 9.1%

  • Probably get arrested for my celebrations

    Votes: 7 12.7%

  • Definitely get arrested for my melt

    Votes: 2 3.6%

  • Admit Goodwin was right abour out brand and learnings along the journey

    Votes: 27 49.1%

  • Wonder why the learnings didn't work

    Votes: 1 1.8%
  • Total voters
    55

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Someone shared this in a facebook group I'm in. Good read.

AFL Grand Final: Paul Roos on Melbourne premiership, how the Demons changed | Herald Sun
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Paul Roos was at home in Melbourne, locked down like the rest of us.

As he sat on the couch with his wife, Tami, last Saturday night watching Melbourne clinch its first flag since 1964, the former Demons coach had a feeling wash over him.

Of course there was joy and satisfaction, but the overriding emotion was one he’d not anticipated until it arrived when captain Max Gawn and Roos’ coaching protégé Simon Goodwin held the premiership cup aloft.

“It was sort of weird watching it. I just got this feeling of just closure afterwards,” Roos told the Sunday Herald Sun.

“It was just so cool ... and a feeling of complete satisfaction.”

The closure was the culmination of the transformation of Melbourne, which was first hatched at the end of 2013 when the Sydney premiership coach was brought in by then Demons chief executive Peter Jackson and former chairman Glen Bartlett.

Roos wanted to set the foundations and not overstay his welcome.

“I knew when I took over, and I spoke to Peter about it, that my journey was going to be to reshape the club and obviously then to put someone in who we believed would take it to the next level,” Roos said.

“That was always the plan and I was never going to deviate from that. I thought it was the best way to get the club back to where it wanted to get to and where I wanted to see them get to.

“It’s great to have a bit of closure around that now.

“Glen and Peter have done a lot of hard yards so hopefully they get the kudos they deserve.

“It was amazing to see because I know how much hard work has gone into it and I’m so glad that Simon and the current group of players and coaches have enjoyed that success.”

THE START OF THE DEES’ REBOOT
Roos was never sold a lemon.

When he took charge at the end of 2013, the Demons’ players and bosses made it abundantly clear to him the club was in a big hole.

“I met with the leadership group at the time, which was Nathan Jones, Jack Trengove, Jack Grimes, ‘Chip’ (James) Frawley, Lynden Dunn, Mitch Clark and Shannon Byrnes,” Roos said.

“They were taking responsibility for where the club was at and also giving me reasons why it was the way it was.

“And Peter Jackson and Glen Bartlett certainly didn’t sugar coat it at all and I think that was the first step, just a really clear awareness of where the club was and how much work needed to be done.”

Roos quickly went about putting good people around him and new systems in place, and by his final year in charge in 2016 he remembered the moment when he thought the club was on the right path.

“The game in my third year when we beat Hawthorn was one where I thought, ‘OK, this has now changed and we’ve really changed’,” he said.

“A lot of young players had come in and didn’t really know much about the past, so that felt like the moment.

“We then played Port Adelaide as well so we had a really good patch and I think we were 7-10 and won the next three games to go to 10-10.

“I felt we’d really achieved something over those three years to get to that point, so that was the moment when we all thought this was a completely different footy club now.”

APPOINTING THE SUCCESSOR

Roos wasn’t interested in game plans or the nitty gritty.

At least not initially when the time came in 2014 to appoint the man who’d be his senior assistant for the next two years before taking over in 2017.
Roos – along with Jackson, Todd Viney and Josh Mahoney – met Goodwin at Viney’s house one night.

Goodwin – then an Essendon assistant coach – impressed the panel when he started talking about coaching philosophy and building relationships.

“It wasn’t so much about the Xs and Os because I think most coaches know them, but it’s about how to put a high-performing team together,” Roos said.

“That was the main thing and also he’d come from a Neil Craig mould, and I’ve got a lot of respect for Craigy as we’d had some real battles when I was coaching Sydney and he was at Adelaide.

“Anyone can put a PowerPoint presentation together ... but I feel like we were all just impressed with the conversation we had at Todd’s place.”

Recent football history is littered with botched succession plans, but the Roos-to-Goodwin handover worked superbly.

Roos said he had no doubt it would work, based on past experience and his desire to never deviate from the plan.

“I already had a sample with Sydney and doing it with John Longmire, so I already had confidence it was going to work,” he said.

“I think some others probably didn’t as much as I did ... and you can never be certain how it’s going to go.

“But I’m really please John Longmire won one after I left (Sydney) and I’m equally as excited for Goody that everything we tried to do as a club back in 2014 had come to fruition.

“And he’s been at the forefront of doing that.”

Goodwin faced his challenges on the road to the pinnacle in Perth last weekend.

He was under significant pressure going into this season, but he responded by adding more experience around him in Mark Williams and Adem Yze.

The result has been spectacular.

“If you go back over history, most coaches are under pressure at some point,” Roos said.

“I was in 2005 by the Swans CEO (Myles Baron-Hay) and ‘Bomber’ Thompson had to survive a review and Alastair Clarkson and Ross Lyon in their early days, so if you go through the history you’ve got to learn from it and improve and keep moving forward.

“I’m sure he learned from those couple of years and changed some things and the club did as well.”

GAWN’S JOURNEY TO THE TOP

Gawn was made to work for it.

When Roos came in, he made it clear to the Demons big man that he wouldn’t be handed games under his watch.

Gawn bit his tongue, gritted his teeth and worked harder, with Roos remembering the day Gawn flicked the switch for good.

It was round 12, 2015, at Kardinia Park, the scene of Melbourne’s infamous 186-point humiliation by Geelong in 2011.

The Demons ruckman collected the three Brownlow votes – the first time he’d polled for the medal – in a famous Melbourne win and never looked back.

“We certainly made him earn his spot in the team and he got a little bit frustrated at times,” Roos said.

“But once he got in the team, I remember specifically a game at Geelong where he just dominated and since then it’s sort of been full steam ahead for him, which has been amazing to see and rewarding for all of us.”

In Melbourne’s grand final-winning side last week, nine players were on the list in 2016 in Roos’ final year.

They were Clayton Oliver, Angus Brayshaw, James Harmes, Christian Salem, Jack Viney, Alex Neal-Bullen, Christian Petracca, Tom McDonald and Gawn.

There were two in particular Roos felt happiest for last Saturday night.

“Maxy and Tom McDonald were there when I first arrived and they would tell you how hard it was and how difficult times were,” Roos said.

“So to especially see Max and Tom reach the ultimate was really exciting.”

THE JONES HEARTBREAK

Roos could not help but notice the cruel irony.

The heartbreak story of the Demons’ grand final win was Nathan Jones, who went through all the bad years at Melbourne but missed selection in the drought-breaking premiership side.

It brought back a feeling of déjà vu for Roos.

“The two captains I started with at Sydney and then Melbourne were Stuey Maxfield, who didn’t play in the 2005 premiership because he was injured, and Nathan Jones,” he said.

“A hundred per cent I really feel for Nathan.

“That’s probably the sad thing about it and I went through it with Stuey.

“It felt similar really when I reflected on it.”

THE END OF THE ‘CURSE’

It was hard for Roos to ignore, and he feared at times it may have seeped into the playing group.

In 2015, in his second year in charge at Melbourne, he referred to the “veil of negativity” among success-starved Melbourne supporters.

He compared the negative vibe around Melbourne to the long-time stigma carried by Richmond for finishing ninth.

That moment now feels like a long time ago.

Like Richmond, Melbourne smashed through that barrier and Roos declared it “absolutely gone.”

“I’m rapt for them and I’ve probably got more messages from Melbourne fans than I did from Sydney fans, but I know it’s easier now with Instagram which didn’t exist in 2005,” he said.

“But I’m just so excited and so appreciative that people have reached out to me, and I’ve gotten back to every one of them with a ‘well done’ or a ‘congratulations’.”
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Engraving done

244434959_10159512740937317_4231704868748481914_n.jpg
 
The club trophy cabinet with no.13 added will look bloody good. I'm sure they'll release a pic.
 
netslave said:
Cant have odd numbers though, they wont line up right, we need another one. ;)
Click to expand...
We have even numbers, it can go below the pride of place, the AFLX trophy
 
Held the Premiership Cup today! Shared the experience with my two young boys and we lapped it up. It was a little emotional tbh but got some great pics and had a few moments with it. Was quite surreal. Wasn't allowed to do a Michael Hibberd with it unfortunately. I did ask. Hopefully all you legends get your moment with it too..
 
Heading into Shepp tomorrow to meet the cup
 

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Met both Max and Goody last night in an intimate meet and greet where they chatted and signed memorabilia. Such great guys. Max agreed to come out and chat to my Grade 1 class next year if I can get a photo of them all in Dees gear. He even gave me a number at the club to call to set it up. What a guy our premiership captain is!!
 
Crusty Demon said:
Met both Max and Goody last night in an intimate meet and greet where they chatted and signed memorabilia. Such great guys. Max agreed to come out and chat to my Grade 1 class next year if I can get a photo of them all in Dees gear. He even gave me a number at the club to call to set it up. What a guy our premiership captain is!!
Click to expand...

Honestly the man is an absolute legend of the club. This premiership does not exist with out him. We are so lucky to have him as one of us
 
Just read that the president of the Western Demons (well, he stood down due to illness, had been president around 10 years before that) died at 1pm on Grand Final day. Just couldn't see out the next 8 hours :(
 

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Universal Love MFC Supporters Celebration thread - Norm Smith, thanks for releasing us!

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