However, the enormous challenge facing the club was part of the reason why the job appealed to him.
"Probably the worse it sounded, the more exciting it got," Roos told melbournefc.com.au.
"We're going to cop some whacks in the head from the media and fans and probably that's my main role, to absorb that for the players, absorb that for the other coaches so they can get on with their job.
"I'll write the letters back and cop it from Mike (Sheahan) and Gerard (Healy) and whoever's there on the couch."
The Demons have not finished higher than 12th on the ladder since Neale Daniher led the club to a semi-final in 2006.
In the past seven seasons, Melbourne has had four different chief executives and four different presidents. Roos becomes the seventh interim or full-time coach to take charge of the Demons.
"In a strange way, that's probably the exciting part," Roos said.
"It is a challenge, I know that, but my job is to probably to shield everyone else from what's about to happen.
"Hopefully we win as many games as we possibly can but it really is the leadership and the culture and the transformation of the footy club hopefully that will take place that excites me the most."
Roos believes that the change in coaching structure will not bring instant success, but rather a buy-in from the player group is necessary for things to turn around.
"Without passing the buck, the coaches can only do so much," Roos said.
"Hopefully we set some high standards, we get them fit, we set a game-plan that we think is going to win and then, to be perfectly frank, it's really up to the players how quickly they embrace that.
"What are their work ethics? Do they work hard? Do they drive each other really hard? How do they react on game day?
"Probably there's too many unknowns at the moment for me to actually predict how many wins.
"I can predict that over the next two or three years you're going to see a really, really competent team, a really good team. I'm extremely confident that that is going to happen."
