The 32-year-old, with 293 games to his name, announced on Tuesday that 2009 would be his final year of AFL football. He is set to become the club’s first 300-game player by playing out the season.
“The thing that we all at the Swans family will remember Mick for is just being Mick,” Roos said.
“It’s always hard to talk to a group when a player retires but today was as hard as it’s been for me because of my relationship with Mick, and also what Mick means to us as a person. He’s a great footballer but he’s also a fantastic person.
“With the highs and lows that exist in football, some days it’s tougher to come into work than others and it’s those days when you see Mick walk in, win lose or draw, with a smile on his face. He just makes the footy club a much more special place to be around.
“Mick as the footballer we’re certainly going to miss because players of his calibre don’t come around very often but Mick as a person – for me, that’s what I’m going to miss the most.”
Roos has been a constant presence at the Swans during O’Loughlin’s career after both arrived in Sydney at the start of the 1995 season.
Having played with O’Loughlin in one successful era at the club and coached him through another, Roos said the forward had been an invaluable contributor.
“When he was struck down with knee tendonitis at the end of his career, he was able to convert himself from a running, athletic half-forward flanker into, really, a power forward,” he said.
“I haven’t seen too many players do what Mick’s done. I was fortunate enough to play with Bernie Quinlan, who won a Brownlow Medal as a midfielder and then went and kicked 100 goals as a full-forward, but they’re very hard to find, those players.
“For Mick to transform himself into a full-forward at his size was just an unbelievable effort.
“There’s no question that without Mick, that era from ’96 and beyond wouldn’t have happened, and we wouldn’t have been anywhere near as successful.”
Roos said O’Loughlin would be missed not only by the extended Swans family, but Australian football fans in general.
“He’s one of those unusual players that is universally respected across all 16 AFL clubs, and rightly so, because of the way that he plays, the ways he goes about it and the way he conducts himself,” he said.
“In terms of the all-round package, Mick O’Loughlin’s right up there with anyone I’ve ever been involved with in footy.”
