Christian Petracca

[CHF 2,711]

A couple of my personal observations about the whole Petracca thing.

We still have not had any clear communication from Petracca as to what the situation is from his perspective. I have read a lot of second hand comments from people that might or might not be correct and the different media have run with these second hand comments and drummed up a few sensational story lines. The only first hand comment we have had is from the MFC is that he is contracted and he will not be traded. 

Every now and then I hear snippets from within the club but on this I have not heard a peep. 

The way I read it is that there are problems between Petracca and the club. I have no idea what they are or if they can be resolved. However, I think it is significant that Petracca has not come out in public and said that he wants to leave the club. At this stage I do not think his management would want him to say that. They would realise that given his value to a team and a lack of viable options for a worthwhile trade, he cannot afford to burn his bridges with the MFC. 

If he did this I would back the club if they if they said "you are a contracted players and will either play fully committed football with us or sit out for as long as you are not prepared to do so."

Last pre-season I thought it was a long way back for Oliver to win the trust and support of the club and the players. I think he has done well during the season to a point where he is getting back to being accepted once again. If Petracca stays on the list he will be in a similar position of having to win back the support and trust of the club and players.

He is a great player and only adds to the team during the games. I would like to see him stay and regain the enjoyment he had playing for us.

 

[Skuit 10,027]

4 hours ago, Brownie said:

I've found a solution tonight to the stress of our footy club burning down. I discovered Johnny Cash a decade or so  ago. 

 

J-Ca$h? You just named the next 1,500-page epic thread on Demonland. Never mind bananas, cucumbers are apparently in short-supply across Europe right now due some Instagram kid who makes recipes for adolescent boys. Meanwhile, Trac can go and enjoy the unwholesome prison Blues. 

Edit: also thanks for the tip mate. Listening now. 

Edited August 28 by Skuit

[Skuit 10,027]

2 hours ago, DiscoStu17 said:

Damn. Holy jebus. Nobody wants that -although I suspect autocorrect running wild again. 

The root chakra, representing stability, security, and our desire for basic needs. My best friend once had his peritoneum removed to combat cancer, and I mistakenly told all my friends that he had his perineum ripped out and naturally they were all very confused. 

[chookrat 4,247]

7 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

roos was on abc afl daily and said he thinks trac and the club have handled it beautifully by NOT making any comment

if nothing happens on the trade front, everyone has kept quiet and not besmirched anyone else on the record

If we find that the media have exaggerated and there is no story beyond what Trac and the club have already talked about re trauma then I'd imagine financial settlements with many in the media which would bolster ours and Traccs coffers. If this happens then we could probably shift our core business from Football to Litigation. 

[layzie 33,677]

No-one say anything else until Trac does.

[djr 1,416]

12 hours ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

I genuinely don't get this.

Even if you put aside the fact this is such a weird and self-aggrandising thing for a non-American sportsperson to concentrate on, does it even bear weight? 

In 2022 there was only one team that got higher home crowds than Melbourne in the home and away season. In the finals we played two interstate teams and averaged 70,000. In 2023 we were comfortably in the top four for home crowds and all crowds during the home and away season. Our two finals both had crowds well over 90,000.  

In 2018, our crowd numbers were strong, as well, in the home and away season and in finals. 

This year, our crowds fell away very badly... after the King's Birthday... when Petracca wasn't playing. 

Is this literally just a desire to play for Collingwood, which has had very good crowds for 30-odd years, or is he unaware that every other club's crowds wax and wane depending on how they're going? 

Didn't we end up with about the fifth highest crowd average in the league this season? We had a similar average to Geelong and Hawthorn.

[Demonsone 2,029]

My question who is leaking all the info on player exit meetings & the players catching up at Gawns bar??

[Whispering_Jack 29,539]

Jay Clark’s article in today’s HUN ~ 

‘No hard feelings’: Trac backed to salvage Dees relationships

In the print edition, the headline is shorter - “Demon will shine again”.

It starts as follows:

“Sydney Swans' great Ryan O'Keefe has backed Christian Petracca to overcome a potential unsuccessful trade request and rediscover his best form at the Demons next year.

“O'Keefe, whose trade move to Carlton was denied at the end of 2008, won the Swans' best and fairest the following season in one of the highlights of his brilliant career.”

It goes on to say that O’Keefe believes that if he stays at Melbourne, Petracca’s “competitive instincts and professionalism” would prevail. 

"If you want to be a professional and go 'OK, I want to explore somewhere else' and that doesn't work, then I get back to where I am and get on with doing the best I can for myself and the team," O'Keefe said.

"You see it across the globe. Players leave clubs and they come back. That is what professional sport is all about.

"You are your own person and your own identity, your own business, so you want to put your best foot forward.

"If you are a strong competitor and it certainly looks like Christian is, he will take pride in his own performance and do everything he can for the team at that time.

"So I think he would have no problems slotting back into Melbourne. There will be no hard feelings."

There’s more as the article falls back on talk about what might happen if Petracca or his camp continue to push for a release to one of the so-called “high profile” clubs but it would be worth their while to spend some time in thought about how they’ve reached this point and whether they might want to have a think about what O’Keefe is saying.

For the record, I believe the club O’Keefe wanted to go to was Hawthorn, not Carlton, the irony being that ultimately, O’Keefe tasted premiership victory for the Swans against the Hawks in 2012.

I still look forward to a future in which Tracc in red and blue holds the premiership cup aloft against Magpie opponents including Maynard and Moore. 

[buck_nekkid 5,838]

Melbourne fc comment: Trac will be a demon and see out his contract.

Trac and Manager: No Comment.

Nothing has advanced in this story since this.

[Skuit 10,027]

2 minutes ago, djr said:

Didn't we end up with about the fifth highest crowd average in the league this season? We had a similar average to Geelong and Hawthorn.

If we compiled all the legitimate responses to the 'What was your Excuse?' attendance thread and submitted it to the AFL with a stuffed brown paper bag then we could probably jump Hawthorn into 5th.  

[Bonkers 994]

12 minutes ago, buck_nekkid said:

Melbourne fc comment: Trac will be a demon and see out his contract.

Trac and Manager: No Comment.

Nothing has advanced in this story since this.

That’s not quite true, we know he has told the club in exit meetings he wants to be traded, we know that his side is leaking to the media a lot of info. The problem for him is that whoever is handling this process doesn’t seem to  know what they are doing as there is no possible exit for him at the moment. No club has the salary space or the picks/player/s to satisfy us in a trade without Melbourne being totally screwed over. That hasn’t stopped him trying to burn the club to the ground with leaking to the media and tarnishing our reputation which effects our efforts to bring in other players to the club to ironically improve as he has mentioned he wants the club to do. I understand he may have grievances which is fair enough but what he is doing isn’t professional and is effecting his workplace that he will almost certainly remain in next year.

 

What has changed from my perspective as a member/supporter is how I see him and his management team, they come across ad totally amateur, childish, greedy and stupid.

[djr 1,416]

28 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Jay Clark’s article in today’s HUN ~ 

‘No hard feelings’: Trac backed to salvage Dees relationships

In the print edition, the headline is shorter - “Demon will shine again”.

It starts as follows:

“Sydney Swans' great Ryan O'Keefe has backed Christian Petracca to overcome a potential unsuccessful trade request and rediscover his best form at the Demons next year.

“O'Keefe, whose trade move to Carlton was denied at the end of 2008, won the Swans' best and fairest the following season in one of the highlights of his brilliant career.”

It goes on to say that O’Keefe believes that if he stays at Melbourne, Petracca’s “competitive instincts and professionalism” would prevail. 

"If you want to be a professional and go 'OK, I want to explore somewhere else' and that doesn't work, then I get back to where I am and get on with doing the best I can for myself and the team," O'Keefe said.

"You see it across the globe. Players leave clubs and they come back. That is what professional sport is all about.

"You are your own person and your own identity, your own business, so you want to put your best foot forward.

"If you are a strong competitor and it certainly looks like Christian is, he will take pride in his own performance and do everything he can for the team at that time.

"So I think he would have no problems slotting back into Melbourne. There will be no hard feelings."

There’s more as the article falls back on talk about what might happen if Petracca or his camp continue to push for a release to one of the so-called “high profile” clubs but it would be worth their while to spend some time in thought about how they’ve reached this point and whether they might want to have a think about what O’Keefe is saying.

For the record, I believe the club O’Keefe wanted to go to was Hawthorn, not Carlton, the irony being that ultimately, O’Keefe tasted premiership victory for the Swans against the Hawks in 2012.

I still look forward to a future in which Tracc in red and blue holds the premiership cup aloft against Magpie opponents including Maynard and Moore. 

I understand what O'Keefe is saying, but I think our guy is a completely different dude.

[thirty-one 106]

9 hours ago, darkhorse72 said:

As Kosh once said, understanding is a three edged sword, their version, our version and the truth.   

 

 

Trac is not the One.  (Hi fellow B5 fan!)

I admit I'm pretty much at the eating popcorn stage.  I've unfollowed Trac's social media - it was half Dees fans begging him not to go, half the Filth squawking triumphantly that he is coming to them, and I have no interest now in bolstering his numbers.

[jimbo1982 94]

Thank you Christian,

Whatever the outcome over the next few weeks and months, just want to say a massive thank you for the incredible contribution you’ve made over the last decade. Every member has walked taller and felt prouder because of your presence on the field, and the amazing impact you’ve had on the support base.

I’m sorry for the injury you’ve sustained this year, and that you haven’t felt as supported as you ought to. I hope you make a full recovery.

Our family has followed Melbourne since long before you arrived, and will do so long after you retire, so we know just how special a player you are. Though my father wasn’t alive to have the pleasure of seeing never you play, his grandson (my nephew) has worn your autographed number since his birth.

You’ll always be a Demon to us.

[Lucifers Hero 39,083]

Tom Barrass:

• a born and bred WA player
• 3 years to run on his contract
• a premiership player
• the club's Vice Captain

has requested a trade across the country to Victoria.  Tom Barrass will be traded to Hawthorn.  No known trauma, no homesickness.  He just pulls up stumps and there is barely a sound.

I would have thought his trade is just as big news and just as big a 'betrayal' of club and fans as the potential Petracca trade...

I'll let posters reflect on how that has been managed compared to our apparent club and players trashing each other.

And please spare me the finger pointing that goes only one way. 

 

[Norm Smith's Curse 2,587]

This thread has really gone off tracc

[Deelectable 1,043]

19 minutes ago, Bonkers said:

That’s not quite true, we know he has told the club in exit meetings he wants to be traded, we know that his side is leaking to the media a lot of info. The problem for him is that whoever is handling this process doesn’t seem to  know what they are doing as there is no possible exit for him at the moment. No club has the salary space or the picks/player/s to satisfy us in a trade without Melbourne being totally screwed over. That hasn’t stopped him trying to burn the club to the ground with leaking to the media and tarnishing our reputation which effects our efforts to bring in other players to the club to ironically improve as he has mentioned he wants the club to do. I understand he may have grievances which is fair enough but what he is doing isn’t professional and is effecting his workplace that he will almost certainly remain in next year.

 

What has changed from my perspective as a member/supporter is how I see him and his management team, they come across ad totally amateur, childish, greedy and stupid.

How do we know that he has told the club that he wants to be traded? Please provide concrete evidence. 

[deelusions from afar 1,767]

13 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Tom Barrass:

• a born and bred WA player
• 3 years to run on his contract
• a premiership player
• the club's Vice Captain

has requested a trade across the country to Victoria.  Tom Barrass will be traded to Hawthorn.  No known trauma, no homesickness.  He just pulls up stumps and there is barely a sound.

I would have thought his trade is just as big news and just as big a 'betrayal' of club and fans as the potential Petracca trade...

I'll let posters reflect on how that has been managed compared to our apparent club and players trashing each other.

And please spare me the finger pointing that goes only one way. 

 

I get your point but there are a lot of differences.  For starters:

• As good as Barrass is, he is not in the conversation for top 3 let alone top 50 players in the league. 
• He is not West Coast's marquee player. 
• West Coast are in full rebuild mode, prior to the Trac news, Melbourne believe we are still in the window (eg wanting Houston).
• The Barrass story has been in the news all year despite his denials
• West Coast has not gone through a turbulent season in the media like Melbourne has - ie it doesn't fit into a larger narrative about West Coast other than they are rebuilding and he doesn't think he'll get a shot at a premiership by the time they are contending again.

[rpfc 28,182]

Are we at these posts already?

Ok then.

[OhMyDees 1,834]

[Gawndy the Great 9,010]

18 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Tom Barrass:

• a born and bred WA player
• 3 years to run on his contract
• a premiership player
• the club's Vice Captain

has requested a trade across the country to Victoria.  Tom Barrass will be traded to Hawthorn.  No known trauma, no homesickness.  He just pulls up stumps and there is barely a sound.

I would have thought his trade is just as big news and just as big a 'betrayal' of club and fans as the potential Petracca trade...

I'll let posters reflect on how that has been managed compared to our apparent club and players trashing each other.

And please spare me the finger pointing that goes only one way. 

 

There is definitely a pile on MFC memo in the media. In this I’m sure. The why is what intrigues me. 

The CFC CEO is about to step aside. Fev dropped this about a week and half ago and there were some interesting reasons behind this. It barely registered a bleep in the news cycle. The premiers failed to make the finals, again no questions asked. 

[Loose Men Everywhere 165]

Blues willing to trade Curnow for Trac

Carlton official speaking on the condition of anonymity said "we'd be willing to do that deal. Ed's been out of the system for a while but has been keeping fit, so yeah we'd do it"

[Gawndy the Great 9,010]

11 minutes ago, Deelectable said:

How do we know that he has told the club that he wants to be traded? Please provide concrete evidence. 

Are we seriously back to this point?

[adonski 11,496]

Nice try, Julian

[Red But Mostly Blue 4,535]

Grabbed a cuppa, jumped online - only 6 pages of Trac to get through!

Not bad, not bad at all. 

Easy peasy. Then I'll get to work 🤣