I won't coach Eagles: Roos
Paul Roos says swapping Swans for Eagles is out of the question
A report in The Australian on Tuesday suggested a group of Eagles supporters were targeting Roos as their first choice to replace embattled senior coach John Worsfold, whose 14th-placed side suffered a hiding at the hands of bottom team Richmond on Sunday.
But Roos said he had no intention of leaving Sydney after stepping down from the senior coaching post at the end of 2010.
“I’ve been really clear on what I want to do, which is not coach anywhere else,” he said on Wednesday morning.
“I’m hoping to stay at Sydney and have a role here. I’ll speak to Andrew Ireland about that and hopefully we’ll get something done in due course.
“But no, I won’t be coaching anywhere else and I’m looking forward to finishing the year here on a bit of a high.”
Roos said he was surprised at the pressure being exerted on Worsfold after the loss to the Tigers, saying his long-time coaching rival had done “an outstanding job”.
“With the draft and the salary cap, sometimes there’s unrealistic expectations,” he said.
“They had success over a five or six-year period, the same as we did. They’ve now gone down a rebuilding path with young players. They’ve got some really talented kids but with talented kids, you’ve got to suffer a little bit of pain and you’ve got to suffer some losses.
“He’s clearly the right guy to coach that football club; he’s got an outstanding record. That’s probably the thing that surprises you a little bit - how quick they are to jump on guys [in WA].”
Although the Swans and Eagles mirrored each others’ rise during the middle of the decade, Roos said there was a simple reason for their differing fortunes since the 2006 grand final.
“With John in WA, there’s not as much pressure on them in terms of members and supporters and that sort of thing. His mandate to the football department is obviously to go young and get some good kids,” he said.
“We’ve done it slightly differently. We think we’ve got some good kids but Benny McGlynn, Joey Kennedy, Mark Seaby, Shane Mumford, Daniel Bradshaw - [they’re] not young kids. That’s allowed us to continue to be more competitive.
“There’s no right or wrong but I think with John, clearly there’s been just younger drafting and that’s going to bear fruit in the next two or three years.”