It might look like a no-brainer now as he prepares to celebrate his 100th game as Sydney coach, but Paul Roos reckoned he took a "precarious decision" when he was first offered the job.

The former Fitzroy and Sydney champion defender has compiled a 61-38 record during his tenure.

He steered a success starved club to finals appearances in each of his first three full seasons, culminating in 2005 in its first Premiership in 72 years.

A quirk of the draw this week pits Sydney against a Richmond team coached by Terry Wallace, who was widely tipped to take over the Sydney job in 2004.

Ultimately a 6-4 win-loss record as a caretaker coach in 2003 following Rodney Eade's mid-season departure and an irresistible tide of public support for the popular Roos led to him being offered the position on a full-time basis.

"I knew I only had ten weeks and it could have been the end of my coaching career after ten games so it was quite a precarious decision to make to actually take the job," Roos recalled.

"I hadn't even really decided whether I wanted to be a senior coach and then all of a sudden this was sort of thrust upon the club and then me, so you definitely think about not taking it and you think about taking it and you look up the pros and cons of both."

His current contract runs until the end of the 2008 season.

Sydney would need to play just three finals matches over that time for Roos to eclipse Eade's club record of 152 games as head coach.

Roos considered games tallies as milestones for players not coaches.

"I think as a player you're 100th 200th, 300th, are definitely landmarks, but as a coach I think the landmarks are really playing finals winning finals and obviously winning premierships," said Roos, who played 356 games.

He started his senior career with Fitzroy in 1982, the same year the Swans made their historic move to Sydney, the city where he finished his playing days.

"Even when I made the decision to come up here (as a player), I signed for three years and I thought I would be here for three years and I'd be gone," Roos said.

"As a Melbourne boy growing up in Melbourne playing for Fitzroy, being here in Sydney was the furthest thing from my mind."

Roos has remained unflappable through occasional media firestorms over issues such as Nick Davis's disenchantment with being dropped last week.

"I understand the role of the media and I don't have a problem answering the questions and all I can do is be as honest as possible," Roos said.

Sydney has slipped to seventh after losing four of its last five games, but Roos took heart from its effort in last week's loss to West Coast.

"Our goal, is to follow on from last Saturday night, which was a good performance against a very good side and try and continue to build on that and to play as well as we did last week," Roos said.

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