MELBOURNE coach Paul Roos says he has spoken to Ryan O'Keefe about his football future but it is 12 months too late for the Norm Smith medallist to continue his career with the Demons.
O'Keefe will be farewelled by the Sydney Swans with a lap of honour at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night, with his career at the club over after 286 games and two premierships (2005 and 2012).
No saving public Ryan
No saving public Ryan
Roos, who coached the 33-year-old between 2002 and 2010, said he would have looked closely at recruiting O'Keefe at the end of last season.
However, the Demons were unlikely to now recruit the midfielder, who has played just four senior games this season, spending the year predominantly in the NEAFL.
"We spoke to Ryan and obviously I've got an enormous amount of respect for him and consider him a friend," Roos said on Thursday.
"Probably if we had known last year … he would have been one along with Daniel (Cross).
"It's probably just 12 months too late for Ryan.
"We haven't absolutely slammed the door on him, but we've had a bit of a chat to him about it and said it's probably unlikely."
Roos said O'Keefe would be a "really valuable asset for someone from a coaching point of view" if he wasn't listed by an AFL club in 2015.
While the Demons had spoken to O'Keefe, Roos said they had make contact with unrestricted free agent Nick Malceski, who has put contract negotiations with the Swans on hold until the end of the season.
"I got a funny email the other day saying we were going to spend $700,000 or $800,000 on Nick," Roos said.
"I like Nick as a player, but no, we haven't spoken to him at all. I don't know where all the rumours start but that's footy at this time of year."
Roos said the Demons hadn't looked into their list management for 2015 "too deeply" yet.
After nine straight defeats, he said it wouldn't be until next week that the club had a clear picture of where the team improved this season.
"Last year I think it was minus-100 possessions a game and minus-30 contested possessions [compared to the opposition] … you statistically weigh it up," he said.
"Perhaps once we weigh that up we'll be able to see the improvement.
"I hope the last game gives them a bit of a boost.
"We've definitely made ground this year and you hope the players take that into the game tomorrow night and finish off with a strong effort."
After a 2014 pre-season that Roos said was compromised by the adjustments needed for a new coach, there are higher expectations for the coming summer.
Roos said the majority of the Demons major operations had been completed and he was hopeful the club would have close to a full group in training for day one of pre-season.
"We'll definitely be able to put more game plan stuff into them – we know the players now, we know what they need to work on," he said.
"If we can get a good November through to March, it's going to be a significant block of education compared to last year.
"I think we've made improvements this year on the back of not much pre-season."
