Paul Roos
AFL premiership winning coach.
Profile
After delivering the Sydney Swans its first AFL flag and then reviving the fortunes of the Melbourne Demons as head coach, Paul Roos resumed his successful media career, with Fox Footy and Melbourne ratings leader 3AW now his chief outlets. As well, he pens a regular column in The Australian newspaper on leadership and culture. Arguably one of the finest keynote speakers in the country, his influence recently led to him delivering a successful campaign on behalf of realestate.com.au.
Current work
> At the end of 2016, Roos finished with the Melbourne Demons and announced his return to the media and renewing his expansive corporate speaking activities.
Previous experience
AFL Player: Paul Roos has earned a much-acclaimed reputation as an AFL player and senior coach. He has also made his mark as a renowned corporate speaker, television host, columnist and author. When Roos placed his hands on the AFL premiership trophy in 2005, it signalled the end of a 72-year drought for the Sydney Swans.
MCG: With more than 92,000 fans watching on at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and hundreds of thousands more glued to television screens around the world, this was Roos’ moment of glory.
Coach: The 2005 Australian Sports Coach of the Year, former 356-match AFL superstar and Australian Hall of Fame member had just witnessed a nail-biting final quarter in the grand final that saw the Swans come from behind to snatch an historic 58-54 victory over the West Coast Eagles.
The Roos factor in the Swans triumph was generously acknowledged in post-match tributes.
Quote: One from Peter Schwab, the former triple Hawthorn premiership player and later the Hawks’ club coach, said it for all. “The greatest strength in Roos’ coaching,” he observed the next day, “appears to be his ability to make a group of players believe that everything is about and for the team”.
DEfeat: In 2006, Roos’ Swans made it to the MCG again on Grand Final Day but were beaten by one point by West Coast. Roos’ true spirit was revealed that day when he accepted the defeat the same way he treated the victory the year before…. the mark of a great sportsman.
Coaching: Following an outstanding career as a player, Roos answered a call to fill the vacant senior coaching position at the Swans midway through the 2002 season.
Assistant: Full-time assistant coach since 2001, he was subsequently appointed to the club’s senior coaching position for a three-year term effective season 2003. Remarkably, he guided the Swans into the play-offs in 2003, his talents acknowledged with his naming as AFL Coach of the Year.
Cricket: Roos played 87 games for the Swans after joining the Sydney Cricket Ground- headquartered club in 1995 following a star-studded career with the old Fitzroy club – now the Brisbane Lions – including six seasons as captain.
Victorian: During his career with Fitzroy, he was a member of the Victorian representative team 10 years running, two as captain. He was also named in the All-Australian team on seven occasions, twice as skipper.
Medals: An extremely mobile player with expansive marking and kicking skills, Roos was runner- up in the Brownlow Medal – AFL’s highest individual player award – in 1986 after finishing third the year before. He also won the E J Whitten Medal, awarded to the best Victorian player in State of Origin football, in 1985 and 1988.
Swans Academy: After standing down as Swans coach, Roos took on the role of coach of the Swans Academy. He has also made his mark as a columnist with News Limited newspapers and as a member of Fox Sports AFL commentary team.
Demons: In late 2013, the consistent calls from the Melbourne Demons led to him signing a three year deal which led
Feedback
The relevance of Paul's supporters was very timely for us - spot on for what we are trying to achieve. He was also a good presenter; with a good conversational style, good flow to his presentation, the ability to answer questions on the run and he listened to our people's comments or questions. We appreciated the way he answered all questions at the end too, and his good natured responses regarding the "other team" comments.
One of the very best I’ve seen in all my years of experience in the industry. I am really pleased to let you know that Paul Roos was absolutely outstanding. The structure of his presentation and the way he delivered it was incredibly professional and maintained everyone’s attention from start to finish. The feedback from the attendees was extremely positive and everyone has taken on board the very important messages Paul delivered, in particular about teamwork, performance and attitude.
Paul did a great job. He was very influential in shaping our day of discussions. The consensus was that of all the sports speakers the group has seen Paul was far and away the most impressive. He has very clearly thorough with what he's doing at the Swans and can describe it in a meaningful way. The (Commonwealth Bank) team is looking at other ways to involve him and I expect we'll be back asking for another session.
Paul Roos delivered one of the best presentations I have ever heard. His presentation exactly reflected my brief and gave the audience an insight to how he runs the Swans as a business and made everyone in the room relate to what he was talking about in their own individual way. The feedback was excellent and the attendees are still talking about it.
Paul Roos gave the best talk on success and changing the culture I've ever heard. Paul offered the honest key reasons why he has been a success. It was refreshing to hear a successful person give a true account of why he had succeeded as opposed to cliche reasons that you would find in any book. I think the true indication that Paul was the right choice came from the feedback of two female delegates who before the talk did not know who Paul was or what he had achieved. They said 'I cannot wait to get back to work and implement the changes he talked about because I can see we are going to get so much from them.' If anyone is considering a guest speaker look no further than Paul Roos. He is the best.
