Our exclusive interview with Paul Roos continues in part two - an insight into how the Sydney premiership coach first entered the ranks on the other side of the fence after a successful playing career. He will always be remembered as the man who coached the Swans to their first flag in 72 years when they defeated West Coast in the 2005 Grand Final, but what really makes the 44-year-old tick? Check back later in the week for the third and fourth instalments of Catherine Murphy's revealing chats with Sydney's main man.

Click here to view part one of our series on Paul Roos.

Were you always a coach in waiting?
I think that people would say that I was a reasonably smart player but I don’t think people would say I was definitely going to be a coach. I think I thought like a coach when I was playing, in the sense that I really tried to think through the game and think about the way things were done. I think that was a strong part of my game. I don’t think I ever saw myself as a coach when I was playing or deliberately set down that path.

So it wasn’t until you finished playing that you began to think about coaching?
Probably in my last year, I started to think about what I would do post playing. I started to think about what I liked about coaches and what I didn’t like. I sat down when I retired in October 1998, and I wrote down some points that I wanted to remember if I ever did coach. I didn’t know whether I would but I didn’t want to forget what it was like to be a player.

Do you still have the piece of paper and do you refer to it from time to time?
Absolutely, I often look to that piece of paper. At the moment it’s still pretty personal to me. I don’t want it to sound like it’s a ‘who built the pyramids’ type thing, it’s just something I wrote down to help myself more than anything else because I found that sometimes the coaches that I had, the longer they were away from being players, they forgot what it was like to be a player.

Can you reveal even one of the things you wrote down?
One of them is, ‘Players don’t mean to make mistakes’. That’s one that even now as a coach, sometimes you tend to think, you know why did that player kick that ball? Then you realise, I don’t think I’ve ever played with a guy that’s deliberately kicked a ball out of bounds as opposed to hitting a teammate, deliberately kicked a point as opposed to a goal.

You didn’t win a premiership as a player. Was that one of the motivating factors which led you into coaching – wanting to fulfill that dream?
One of the moments I remember, was when I was working for Channel 7 doing the Grand Final in Brisbane and they beat Essendon. I was fortunate enough to be on the field to see Alastair Lynch, who’s a great mate of mine, get his medal and to see what he went through, having had chronic fatigue [syndrome], to get there. Most of your own moments in sport are your favourite moments but that would be up there with one of my favourite moments and it wasn’t something I was involved in. So it was quite powerful to watch that ceremony and watch him get the medal. That was a motivating factor because I realised what a great experience it is to win one and not having won one. That gave me a real sense of urgency to get back involved and have a crack at doing it. It was really special.

When you did become part of it and win a premiership with Sydney. Did it fulfill that dream?
I think it’s everything you hope it is and more. Because of the 72 years, it was very significant. Probably the thing that most surprised me was how it impacted on so many people. The letters I got at that time and the emails with people saying what a huge experience it was. As a personal experience, to have your wife and kids and see Paul Kelly, Bobby Skilton and guys like that there was special.

As for your future in coaching, you’ve said you don’t want to coach outside New South Wales. But are there any circumstances that you would move to Victoria for work? Say if global warming reached a point where the weather in Melbourne was better than Sydney and all the water had drained out of the harbour here, would you consider it then?
(Laughs) As it stands now I wouldn’t. I’d be more likely to finish up here, leave and then hopefully come back and coach one day. I think if I did have a break, and I got the urge to coach again, I’d like to think that without stepping on anyone’s toes or if the process happened and I was invited back to coach, so I’d be more likely to come back to this club rather than go to another club.

You’ve spent time in America before, would you be interested in coaching there?
I’d be interested in getting involved in the college system, in NFL or NBA. It’s unlikely to happen but I’d be interested in doing that. That would probably interest me more than doing Victoria or South Australia or Western Australia. It’s nothing against those teams or states, it’s just once I finish here I’ll be reasonably tired and ready to do something different.

How long more do you feel you will stay at Sydney? If you won a premiership this year, would that be it for you?
It’s less about records and more about making sure that I’m still able to give it all my energy and making sure I’m still useful around here and wanted. So I don’t know yet. At this stage I’ll be coaching until the end of this year.

Check back on Friday for part three of our exclusive interview.