ROOS: how to pick the improvers
Why bother about coaching when you can retire as a golden boy, and pick up multiple media roles in a twist?

The golden boy of the boundary line, Paul Roos has hit his new world rapidly - he's already been in the commentary box for FoxSports, will soon replace another golden boy James Hird in FoxSports' On The Couch, and on Saturday he made his debut as a columnist in the Herald Sun.

It was a soft start: he chose to review the months since the 2010 season was over, and what clubs needed to do - or had done  - to improve in the new season. Understood in all this was the fact that the game constantly improves, and even the premiers must do better in the following season.

Roos' four points on how to identify improvers were nothing earth-shaking; just points of common sense.

The starting point was the quality of a team's performance in 2010, to which you add clear list improvements, take into account injuries through the off-season (none is good!), and wonder how much improvement is in the key performers of 2010.

From all that, he named his improvers as Collingwood, Hawthorn and St Kilda, and those that won't be as Geelong, Adelaide, Brisbane, Fremantle and the Bulldogs.

Harvey's take
In the West Australian, Fremantle coach Mark Harvey agreed with Roos on how to identify improvements; although no doubt he is at odds with the view that Fremantle won't be better than their top-six finish in 2010.

He told Mark Duffield that with less depth on all lists after the compromised draft had loaded Gold Coast with talent, "the answer (to whether Freo would challenge the top four) is that if you have a good run (with injuries) and you can maintain your senior core of players, then that will hold you in good stead."

And also, he said, it was important to "maintain momentum, building on the previous year … and (seeing) improvement from individuals."

He also said he would expect improvement from "maturity alone".

So there you go. In one paper a highly paid columnist has his say; in the other a simple interview with a current coach provides the same answers.

Port Adelaide unhappy with GWS draw
Caroline Wilson reported in The Age that Port Adelaide had protested to the AFL after drawing Greater Western Sydney in the final NAB Challenge match next weekend.

The protest was to do with lack of competition at such an important stage of the season.

The Power might well have complained about a similar lack of competition in its match against Geelong on Friday night - a match in which the Cats had only a handful of senior talent and lost by 84 points.

AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said Port's football manager Peter Rhode had contacted the AFL, and that "we'll look at it over the next few days."

No bookies bet on such matters, but we'd reckon they would be offering about $1.01 that Port will meet GWS next week.

A colleague whacks Peter Costello
The Age columnist Martin Flanagan worked through the pros and cons of former federal treasurer Peter Costello's second attack on AFL values, published earlier in the week in the same paper.

Flanagan pointed out that many who commented online after the Costello comment had been published supported the Costello view that AFL player behaviour was poor.

He noted that Costello had employed the line that those who spoke against his original comments of a fortnight earlier were from "the football industry".

You might remember those comments. He claimed that no parent would want their daughters near any AFL player, leading to a conflagration of rebuke from players and the football media.

Flanagan added: "This tactic rings big warning bells. It was how the Howard Government, of which Costello was part, successfully silenced people who spoke out on behalf of Aboriginal people. They were "the Aboriginal industry".

Media Watch has an even firmer view on this matter. Costello's comments gave big licks of oxygen to the concept of generalisation as reasonable opinion. The whopper was that those of us involved in reporting the sport of AFL are spruikers for the game and the players.

Costello clearly hasn't been reading the sports pages in recent years. The reason so many "spruikers" slammed his original comments had nothing to do with rolling cotton wool around the game and its players: the comments were plain wrong, and those who slammed his view know that the balance of failure among the playing group is at the very low levels of percentages.

Media Watch's view was well put by Flanagan, when he wrote, in conclusion: "As for Costello, he should spend a bit of time with the players. He says he wants "real answers". I challenge him to acquaint himself with the reality".

Queensland "derby" next weekend
The Gold Coast Bulletin reports that next weekend will see the first match between the two Queensland clubs, the Suns and the Lions.

The locals will meet at Southport in their final practice match, in the NAB Challenge series.

Meanwhile, the paper reports that the Suns' new stadium is on track for its first AFL match on May 28.

The turf is almost laid, the construction is on target, and with the turf now in place, there are no other issues that could hold up the schedule.

The local derby will have its official debut when the Lions host the Lions at the Gabba in round seven.
 
Geoff Slattery is the managing editor of AFL Media. The views in this piece are his and do not necessarily reflect the views of the AFL or its clubs.