PAUL Roos’ arrival at Melbourne has reinvigorated the club and reinforced to elite performance manager Dave Misson that the 2005 Sydney Swans premiership coach is the right man to lead the Demons up the ladder.

Misson, who worked with Roos at Sydney and was the Swans’ fitness guru in the ’05 flag, said Roos’ persona was the No.1 reason for his success.

“It’s been great [having Roos at the club]. He’s a great person, first and foremost. He’s just honest in everything he does and he says. I think he’s provided a real breath of fresh air for the place and some hope more than anything,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“As well as Roosy, it’s the people he’s brought on board. A lot of the people, I’ve either worked with or actually trained at the Swans, in ‘Frosty’ (Daniel) McPherson and Benny Mathews’ case. Again, they’re just really great people.”

“Having Brad Miller back at the club, even though I haven’t been involved, just seems like an A1 person. I think the players see it as a real breath of fresh air and an opportunity to leave the past behind and to just get on with the job and building a new Melbourne footy club. There’s no better person than Roosy to be steering the ship.”

Misson was integral in Sydney’s 2005 premiership, particularly when the Swans managed to keep their side almost injury-free and unchanged in the latter part of the year.

“It’s interesting, because we had a bit of a chat about it, but we had one player who missed two games in the back half of the year. We essentially had the same team for that whole period and then finals,” he said.

“I’m not sure whether you’re able to do that at AFL these days – I think it’s very rare. I think Geelong has shown in the last few years that not many players play every game, whereas it used to be a pretty strong statistic to finals success – the number of players, who have played every game.

“These days, with the intensity and how combative the game is, you’re probably looking at players playing 21 or 22 games at the most, if they’re out of 25, going through a whole finals series. It’s interesting, because the game isn’t getting any easier, but we need to improve our injury rate – there’s no doubt about that.”