MELBOURNE coach Paul Roos says he kept faith with his players and was delighted with Saturday’s upset win over Carlton, a victory he described as “absolutely super-important” for the club.
Roos revealed he had been buoyed by messages of support from Melbourne fans, despite the Demons’ 0-3 start and a fade-out loss to the Giants last week.
A rank outsider pre-match, the Demons conceded three of the opening four goals but shocked the football world with a 23-point victory that has consigned the Blues to a disastrous 0-4 start to the season.
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The Demons’ coach thought his side was lucky that Carlton missed some crucial opportunities early in the last quarter, and felt it was "a lot closer" contest than the scoreboard suggested, but was proud of how his team steadied to close out the game.
"You've got to have some little wins along the way," Roos said. "Just to see the players in the rooms and to see the fans who have stuck by the club for so long – it was a pretty good crowd actually.
“(I) thank the fans for keep on turning up (and) thank the fans that have sent me support and emails. It's great to get some reward for effort. Today was obviously a step in the right direction.
"I'm always positive but they have been down. It has been tough. We've been a battling club. It's been a frustrating start to the season but I've always had some faith in the players.
"I just want them to give effort. I don't care how many games we win or lose because we're trying to set the club up for the long term. If they’d have run over the top of us in the end, which they may well have done, our effort was still there. But I'm glad we won."
The Demons teamed superbly and were inspired by standout performances from co-captain Nathan Jones in an attacking run-with role on Carlton captain Marc Murphy, and defender James Frawley who played a roaming role in attack.
Roos was also pleased with the efforts of Lynden Dunn up forward and Jack Grimes and Tom McDonald in defence.
"It does help when your better players play well – they tend to drag the others long," Roos said. "It was hard to find some who didn't give effort today."
Roos reserved special praise for Jones (a team-high 28 disposals), who he regarded as clearly best-afield on Murphy (18) in a role that had Jones playing deep in defence at times.
Roos said he kept Jones on Murphy because he didn't want to play "cat-and-mouse" and because he felt the Demons had enough midfield coverage.
"It's something we've been thinking about with Nathan's development and in past years he hasn't had much help in the midfield, so he's had to be at every stoppage," he said.
"We just felt (that) with Bernie (Vince) and 'Crossy' (Daniel Cross) and Dom Tyson in particular, those three quality players, we don't necessarily have to have (Jones in there).
"It showed today when they took Murphy forward and Nathan went back. We were not happy about it but … it was a really important role and Nathan Jones took a huge step forward today."
