Premiership coach Paul Roos has been questioned after making some strong comments about AFL struggler North Melbourne.
Roos has called the Kangaroos’ winless start to the year “pathetic”, but that has ruffled the feathers of fans and at least one club great.
The former coach and champion player is famous for taking the Sydney Swans to a drought-breaking flag in 2005, and he was also hailed for a brilliant succession plan where he handed the reins to the Swans’ current coach John Longmire.
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Roos was later used by Melbourne to orchestrate a similar succession plan where he passed the baton to Simon Goodwin.
And there’s no doubting he has the Midas touch, with both Goodwin and Longmire becoming premiership coaches.
With such an impressive CV, North Melbourne sounded out Roos and asked him to join their selection panel when they were searching for a new coach in 2020.
The panel was tasked with finding a coach to replace Rhyce Shaw, and landed on David Noble.
But that appointment approved disastrous and Noble was sacked 18 months later after a string of losses and only five wins in 38 games.
Roos was also hired by the Kangaroos as a consultant but that appointment became “difficult” — according to former CEO Ben Amarfio — when Roos moved to Hawaii.
Now Roos has taken a swipe at North’s current predicament where they are dead last on the ladder with zero wins from eight games this season.
“So North Melbourne are 0-8 after two years of David Noble and in the second year of Clarko (Alastair Clarkson),” he said on the AFL Daily podcast.
“I don’t really know what Clarko is doing. I love Clarko, we all know Clarko … I watch their games and there is no brand about how they play.
“Is it too late? I don’t know. (Clarkson) is a four-time premiership coach, he’s done way better than me at coaching, but I look at their team and they had way more talent than Melbourne did when we first started.
“I really don’t know what Clarko is doing because I’m not there, but 0-8 is pathetic. That is pathetic for the North Melbourne Football Club.
“My second year at Melbourne, we won seven games with a far less talented team than what North Melbourne has.”
But commentator and North Melbourne premiership hero David King has an issue with Roos’ comments and says they make him feel “uneasy”.
“It’s hard to argue at 0-8. You can use whatever titles you like – he’s gone with pathetic – and I think that’s fair enough,” King said on radio station SEN.
“But Roosy’s fingerprints are on the North Melbourne program over the last 5-6 years. So I’m uneasy with the comments given that he was part of the solution, he was part of the acquisition of David Noble. He had a fair bit to say with him getting the opportunity.
“When you look at that, it was a period of time that set us back a couple of years. So to distance yourself totally just doesn’t sit well with me.
“I’m not here to defend North Melbourne, they can do that themselves ….
“(But Roos) was a steadying hand for David Noble in his infancy as coach to try and work and smooth out the communication between the board and the footy department.
“I don’t think it was a volunteer role, there was a bit of ‘cashish’ going back the other way.
“I was just disappointed you can separate yourself so quickly from that. It didn’t work what he tried to do at North Melbourne.
“It’s easy to say they’re pathetic now and have a go at the situation now, everyone has done that.”
Fans were also not thrilled with the Roos commentary.
“(And this is from) the guy who hired David Noble and then sat on our payroll from Hawaii while the place was on fire??” one fan blasted on X (formerly Twitter).
While another amusingly added: “When they said work from home I don’t think they meant Honolulu.”