AFL great Paul Roos has been slammed for making a “stupid comment” about struggling North Melbourne.
Roos, who earlier called the Kangaroos’ winless start to the season “pathetic”, had another crack at the club when discussing his playing days.
The Australian Football Hall of Famer enjoyed a stellar playing career for Fitzroy and Sydney, clocking up 356 games and seven All-Australian selections among a host of accolades.
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Speaking to SEN about his debut way back 1982, Roos claimed the standard of footy back then was much better given there were only 12 teams and the depth of players was greater.
He added that the Carlton reserves team would comfortably beat today’s North Melbourne side.
“I remember (my debut). We actually got belted, I played full-forward. I kicked a couple of goals late and I got dropped the next week. So, I thought my career was not going to go 356 games, but one game,” he told SEN.
“But without sounding (like old timers), well I suppose we can sound like them because that’s what we’re here for, there was certainly a lot more depth.
“We only had 12 teams and our seconds teams … I say this, Carlton’s seconds team in the early ‘80s would beat North Melbourne right now, there’s no question about that.”
As a coach, Roos famously took the Sydney Swans to a drought-breaking flag in 2005, and was also hailed for a brilliant succession plan where he handed the reins to the Swans’ current coach John Longmire.
Roos was later used by Melbourne to orchestrate a similar succession plan where he passed the baton to Simon Goodwin.
He was later employed by North Melbourne to join their selection panel when they hired David Noble in 2020.
That proved a disastrous appointment with Noble sacked inside 18 months, but Roos remained on the club’s payroll in a consultancy position for two years despite being based in Hawaii.
That fact wasn’t lost on former North Melbourne champion Corey McKernan, who took aim at Roos for the comment.
“Oh really? That’s interesting given that Roosy took the cash from North Melbourne and was part of it – it’s a really stupid comment from Roosy, not a bad gig by the way working remotely from Hawaii,” McKernan tweeted.
In further tweets, McKernan added that it was “very silly to say when you were a part of what happened.”
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson laughed and asked “did he?” when informed of Roos’ comments.
“Everyone’s got their opinion,” Clarkson said.
“You’re an easy target when you’re sitting on the ladder where we are so you just roll with the punches.
“All of us have been part of (struggling) sides … whether we’ve coached them or whether we’ve played in them.
“I thought ‘Roosy’ might have been one of those too, but obviously not.”
Having remained in the bottom-two since the start of 2020, North have been as competitive in the last month as they have for years.
The Kangaroos recorded their first win of the season against West Coast in round 13, before narrow defeats to finals contenders Collingwood, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs.
“The last four weeks have shown our supporters and the wider football football public that there’s some excitement here,” Clarkson said.
“You don’t have to go back too long ago where Carlton were and where the Melbourne footy club were … ironically enough ‘Roosy’ was at the Melbourne footy club when that was happening.”
– With AAP