OUTGOING Melbourne coach Paul Roos has used his farewell speech at Tuesday's best and fairest presentation to take a cheeky shot at Richmond after its week of upheaval.
Addressing a crowd of 1200 people at Crown Palladium, Roos said the emergence of a disgruntled supporter group seeking to overthrow the Tigers' board would only breed disharmony.
The Demons coach praised Melbourne president Glen Bartlett and his board for staying true to the vision the club had created.
"Hopefully this doesn't make a headline tomorrow, and it's not the point of it, but I think what we saw yesterday (Monday) was a club that is in some disarray in the Richmond Football Club," Roos said.
"There hasn't been a footy club that has been through as much as the Melbourne Football Club, but we've never got to the point where we've had breakaway groups, past players, etc., thinking they can overthrow boards.
"That's credit to every single person who has followed the Melbourne Football Club over the last six or seven years."
Roos gave another strong endorsement to incoming coach Simon Goodwin, saying he was looking forward to watching how his successor's career would unfold.
"I knew walking out of Todd's [list manager Todd Viney] house (during the coach identification process) that we had our next senior coach," Roos said.
"The fact that you weren't talking about the stoppages and the kick-ins and all that sort of stuff, you were talking about culture and the things you learnt as captain of Adelaide.
"The impact you've had on me and more importantly on the Melbourne Football Club is unbelievable and we couldn't have left the place in better hands."
Roos' last impassioned message was to the players, eyeballing those who sat in the audience, urging them to be relentless in their pursuit of greatness.
"Decide to be great. It is a decision, it doesn’t happen by accident,” Roos said.
"You have to want to be great. Greatness is not going to happen when you turn up on November 1 or whenever you turn up and Simon has got the whistle and is in charge.
"Greatness is going to happen when you walk out of this room tonight. That's when greatness starts.
"You have to commit to it, you have to want to do it and I would love nothing more than to see Simon and (captain) Nathan (Jones) holding up the premiership cup."