1 hour ago, Ted Lasso said:

I actually think Damo has been pretty good with the Trac stuff, i think he's one of the few journos who has done a really good job of seeing the fault in both sides of this situation. 

He's given Trac as many good clips as he has the MFC, and as far as i can see the MFC might be a basket case, but Trac hasn't been a saint either.

I agree. He's actually been quite nice to us this year in moments. And he is one of the few journalists who has seen fault on both sides of the issue. 

1 hour ago, praha said:

The gaslighting in this thread is off the charts.

Yep.

1 hour ago, Deez21 said:

Petracca spoke to the players before committing to know he'd be okay at the club.

He's happy his grievances about the club have been listened to and that all he wanted. He knew a deal couldn't be done with the clubs he wanted and then moved to mending fences at Melbourne.

A lot of work for club and player to ensure we don't have a repeat in 2025

there will definitely be a repeat in 2025,  even if only generated by the media,  guaranteed 

Would have preferred him just to leave tbh

Damage is done and true colours have been shown

Let's see how many games he is unavailable for next season

59 minutes ago, djr said:

I agree. His recovery will be long and slow. I fear he will have little to no preseason as we know it. From the photos I've seen, it appears he has lost a lot of muscle mass and would have lost a lot of aerobic fitness. It's going to take time.  It will require very strong self-belief to get through this. How the club manages him will be critical.

All I want is for Trac to recover & we look after him and aid his recovery, I watched the 3rd qtr of the GF to really appreciate his talent and his all for the team along with how connected they were as a team inc Oliver and selfless acts! 

1 hour ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

That sounds fair to me. But every indication is that he wanted to leave. I can sympathise with enormous frustration. But I find it very difficult to admire a desire to just walk away. 

But Tracc didn’t walk away.  It seems he may have wanted out but that is unverified.  And even if he did, it’s possible he initially had issues with the direction of the club which are legitimate, raised them, and said he would leave if he didn’t have a contract (initial Morris story).  It’s also possible that Tracc was so aggrieved by that story leaking that it made everything worse and he suddenly entertained leaving more seriously.

But no-one really knows as everything other than Tracc’s media statement is based on unverified sources and leaks.

I’ll back Tracc.  I’m usually pretty quiet at the footy but I’ll be as vocal as I can be when Tracc runs out for us next year.

 

4 hours ago, binman said:

I'm a punter. I look for value.

What's a redlegs membership go for?

Let's say $250.

And for the sake of argument, let's say the GF ticket is also $250.

So, I'm risking $250 to win $250 - an even money bet. 

When a market goes up post GF for next year's GF I could probably get  500-1, perhaps more, for a dees' flag into tracc winning the Norm Smith Multi.

If i staked $250 and the dees tracc double got up, at 500-1 my return would be $125k.

If i took your offer, and won, my profit would be $500 - a fair bit less than $125k.

Not a great value bet then. Well and truly unders.

So, thanks for the offer, but I'll pass on the bet (though I might take the 500s with a bookie).

But im looking forward to the redemption part of the narrative arc regardless.

Ah that's fair and exactly as expected. 

I'm not sure what odds you'd get on a Melbourne premiership in 2025 but you're proving my point perfectly.  

You often say something along the lines of "bookies know best" because they're not charities. 

With all the issues around Trac, Clarry, gus forced to retire, kozzy unhappy, the forbidden topic, nibbler leaving, petty playing forward, low goal scoring, being run over on turnovers etc. it's almost certain that we won't win a grand final. 

Far more likely we'll end up either just scraping finals or roughly where we are now.  

Your redemption dream is a massive long shot unfortunately and that's reflected in the odds.  And if we don't improve it plays perfectly into Trac's hands.  Justification for him to say nothings changed, we're unprofessional and the media will say it's fair for him to go elsewhere.  

I'm more relieved trac is staying purely because rewatching the 2021 gf would be hard to watch if he had left

Are we missing an opportunity here? Will he be mentally and physically prepared to have an impact in 2025?

If he misses half the year and does bugger all on the field as he eases his way back, we'll be in big trouble if he's traded at the end of 2025, value will be shot

33 minutes ago, SthSea22 said:

Would have preferred him just to leave tbh

Damage is done and true colours have been shown

Let's see how many games he is unavailable for next season

Footy teams are very forgiving and malleable for their own.

I think you are projecting that damage.

Some fans will not get over the injustice of a player’s seeming recalcitrance or disloyalty or ambivalence to appearance keeping.

Ah well, I am a forgiver and I will enjoy watching him run around in the red and the blue.

3 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

I'm more relieved trac is staying purely because rewatching the 2021 gf would be hard to watch if he had left

I thought of that too; my solution would have been to get drunk.

Just now, adonski said:

Are we missing an opportunity here? Will he be mentally and physically prepared to have an impact in 2025?

If he misses half the year and does bugger all on the field as he eases his way back, we'll be in big trouble if he's traded at the end of 2025, value will be shot

If we are doing hypothetical counter-factuals - how about this; he leaves as one of the top 5 players in the game and wins a flag for some other club…

2 minutes ago, adonski said:

Are we missing an opportunity here? Will he be mentally and physically prepared to have an impact in 2025?

If he misses half the year and does bugger all on the field as he eases his way back, we'll be in big trouble if he's traded at the end of 2025, value will be shot

No, because trading him to Richmond or North would get us what we want, but he'd never say yes. 

2 hours ago, praha said:

The gaslighting in this thread is off the charts.

The writing was on the wall after two straight set exits. In hindsight it's crazy we didn't see this coming. 

I honestly thought (as did almost everyone else) that we would turn the corner as a club after we won the flag. We are still a semi-pro organisation masquerading as a big club. We have heavy hitters at the top end of town but that's it. The denial from club leaders, prominent supporters and even some players was straight up gaslighting the obvious. 

Tom Morris' report on SEN this morning was an indictment on club leaders. The last three seasons should absolutely burn the club internally and by all accounts it simply hasn't. It has to burn everyone right through the club including supporters. Instead we celebrate when we beat Essendon and pretend like everything is okay. We're still stuck in a 90s mentality as a club. If we want to play with the big boys we absolutely have to be filthy with this. Collingwood couldn't handle missing the finals despite getting within a kick of a flag in 2018 and multiple Prelims. It didn't take much to absolutely gut the place and reboot. 

We just don't have a hunger as a club to be feared. It took two finals series for us to lose all respect we gained from 2021. I honestly don't blame Petracca.

Collingwood and Hawthorn would come out breathing fire next season if they went through this. Richmond did after going through similar with Martin.

I just can't see it. And again I'm in a "happy to be proven wrong" mindset.

Keen to hear your opinion on Sydney, Port Adelaide, GWS, Brisbane, Carlton and The Dogs recent history - not a flag amongst them for many a year.  Geelong and Collingwood both missed finals immediately following their flag.  Only one of those 8 clubs can be vindicated this year and it isn't going to be "fire-breathing" Collingwood.

9 minutes ago, adonski said:

Are we missing an opportunity here? Will he be mentally and physically prepared to have an impact in 2025?

If he misses half the year and does bugger all on the field as he eases his way back, we'll be in big trouble if he's traded at the end of 2025, value will be shot

He is still contracted at the end of 2025. If we address the core issues, then he really doesn't have a leg to stand on unless of course there are other reasons he wants to leave.

We shouldnt repeat the same mistakes with Oliver. Dont start Trac until he has effectively completed a preseason where his fitness is close to what he has achieved previously. If it takes an additional 8 -10 weeks for the season, the so be it.

49 minutes ago, SthSea22 said:

Would have preferred him just to leave tbh

Damage is done and true colours have been shown

Let's see how many games he is unavailable for next season

I think the damage is the media. As much as Trac wanted to go, there is no one in football who could've seen a trade eventuating, so the media should've made it a story on how Melbourne can improve but instead made it a trading story.

Even they acknowledged Trac wont request a trade yet that's all they spoke about it

2 hours ago, praha said:

The gaslighting in this thread is off the charts.

The writing was on the wall after two straight set exits. In hindsight it's crazy we didn't see this coming. 

I honestly thought (as did almost everyone else) that we would turn the corner as a club after we won the flag. We are still a semi-pro organisation masquerading as a big club. We have heavy hitters at the top end of town but that's it. The denial from club leaders, prominent supporters and even some players was straight up gaslighting the obvious. 

Tom Morris' report on SEN this morning was an indictment on club leaders. The last three seasons should absolutely burn the club internally and by all accounts it simply hasn't. It has to burn everyone right through the club including supporters. Instead we celebrate when we beat Essendon and pretend like everything is okay. We're still stuck in a 90s mentality as a club. If we want to play with the big boys we absolutely have to be filthy with this. Collingwood couldn't handle missing the finals despite getting within a kick of a flag in 2018 and multiple Prelims. It didn't take much to absolutely gut the place and reboot. 

We just don't have a hunger as a club to be feared. It took two finals series for us to lose all respect we gained from 2021. I honestly don't blame Petracca.

Collingwood and Hawthorn would come out breathing fire next season if they went through this. Richmond did after going through similar with Martin.

I just can't see it. And again I'm in a "happy to be proven wrong" mindset.

More gaslighting as far as I'm concerned.

We were never going to beat Brisbane in 2022 as we were so banged up with so many players injured and/or out. We were centimetres away and a split second Maynard decision from a preliminary final in 2023 and it would be irrational to blame the board, the football department, the leadership group or the players for being semi professional in all of that.  This year, I say that absent the Darcy Moore crash into Petracca's back, we win three more games, make the finals and CP5 isn't cooking pasta on the beach at Noosa in July/August.

In hindsight, we're all mugs for not seeing that crash coming. How did you not pick that or Maysie and Clarries broken bones at the end of the year?

Edited September 2, 2024Sep 2 by Pinball Wizard

Trac is top five player in the whole league, glad he's staying, got to back him in because he is a difference maker and if/when he gets back to full health we want him playing for us not someone else.  Let's just hope the club sorts itself out because I have no doubts that's just what he wanted anyway and maybe this was a way to kick it all into gear, who knows, but it will be galvanizing for the players and the club to make things right.

6 minutes ago, Hellfire Dub said:

Ah that's fair and exactly as expected. 

I'm not sure what odds you'd get on a Melbourne premiership in 2025 but you're proving my point perfectly.  

You often say something along the lines of "bookies know best" because they're not charities. 

With all the issues around Trac, Clarry, gus forced to retire, kozzy unhappy, the forbidden topic, nibbler leaving, petty playing forward, low goal scoring, being run over on turnovers etc. it's almost certain that we won't win a grand final. 

Far more likely we'll end up either just scraping finals or roughly where we are now.  

Your redemption dream is a massive long shot unfortunately and that's reflected in the odds.  And if we don't improve it plays perfectly into Trac's hands.  Justification for him to say nothings changed, we're unprofessional and the media will say it's fair for him to go elsewhere.  

The flag and a norm smith to tracc double is a massive long shot.

Our odds on winning a flag will probably be something like 20-1. 

Tracc winning the norm smith propaganda 25-1 or more (hence the 500-1).

It's tough to win a flag, a lot has to go right - just ask the pies who failed to make finals the year after winning one.

500-1 is not a million miles from what you'd get for a pies flag nick daicos norm smith double.

But what I actually meant was it is even money the following would happen (not that you could bet on it):

Dees have a cracking preseason.

The Max, Jack, tracc and clarry band gets back together.

The young Turks (JVR, mcvee, Windsor, Kolt, disco and pick 5) make their own music.

I see no reason why the above won't happen.

But to be honest you are reading way too much into what was a light-hearted post not a serious prediction.

A serious prediction - we will make finals next year. 

2 hours ago, KozzyCan said:

I mean Houston and Port handled that pretty maturely I think. They were happy for him to go if a good deal could be done, it couldn't be and he was invited back into the fold. But to what you're saying, every club has leaks, it's true. Ours is a sieve and the leaks present a pretty adversarial relationship between the club and players who step out of line.

Players having issues with their clubs is nothing new but good clubs should handle all this stuff in house. No coincidence that numerous senior players have admitted to be frustrated by club comms recently.

Melbourne handling of players wanting to leave:

- ANB: first club to ever celebrate a player choosing to leave a club? Most mature handling of a trade I can recall

- Petty: Declined his trade request and convinced him to stay, when everyone said he was gone. Handled well (albeit if 2 first rounders were available that would have been a good trade)

- Oliver: Clearly off the rails to an extent, complex mental health issues at play. Club leaders like Max and Goodwin put a mountain of work with help him through - seems to have paid off as he is off the USA for offseason training camp. 

- Trac:

Club went into closed book mode whilst media was churning out rumours about why he wants to leave (this is still unknown), where they flip-flop between oliver, medical care, "brand" (a word they made up and now are saying this came from Melbourne) - whilst also dragging Christian through the mud, despite both club and player repeatedly on the record saying he is suffering from a traumatic incident.

Trac releases statement saying he is staying way before trade period and way before anyone in the media expected. Imo, the club said f**k the media, we are going to work in-house with Trac and go public once its settled. This was done, we retain our best player - whilst media spin their stories to say Melb is still screwed and call for Rofey's head because she played a straight bat in an interview.

If I am a Melbourne player, Id be happy to know that the club will not react to rumours and work directly with me, for as long as it takes, before saying anything publicly. 

3 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

The most perplexing thing for me in all this is the whole "players couldn't understand why Petracca was in Noosa posting Instagram vids" - if they couldn't figure this out for themselves and had to rely on communication from the club to explain it I really worry about the IQ/EI of our players. I'm also worried about which players it was who were questioning it, is was it from our leadership group/senior players?

Maybe it was the senior players. They could have been trying to salvage the clubs season, talk through how they approach playing group, etc and were getting donuts from Trac, only to then see him post a bunch of social media vids. Would confuse me too

It may be nothing more than Trac said something to the effect of "if this club doesn't get its act together soon I'll be out of here".

In other words an ultimatum and a declaration of future intent.

2 minutes ago, pitmaster said:

It may be nothing more than Trac said something to the effect of "if this club doesn't get its act together soon I'll be out of here".

In other words an ultimatum and a declaration of future intent.

I think that is what happened, said it when the story first aired 

I’ll back Trac in to get back to his best.

After hearing Maxy’s interview last week I’ve no doubt ll get back on track with the playing group. I’ve no concerns there.

Neither Trac, the playing group or the club covered themselves in glory during this whole shambles. The backgrounding to the press has been appalling and an inditement on everyone.

I would like to know what issues Trac raised and how these will be dealt with. There needs to be communication from the club to the members here. The usual “she’ll be right, every club has problems” line won’t do.

I expect to see changes and it looks like Pert and Roffey are in the gun.

Huge 2025 coming up for this club.

6 minutes ago, Lord Neville X Flash said:

Melbourne handling of players wanting to leave:

- ANB: first club to ever celebrate a player choosing to leave a club? Most mature handling of a trade I can recall

- Petty: Declined his trade request and convinced him to stay, when everyone said he was gone. Handled well (albeit if 2 first rounders were available that would have been a good trade)

- Oliver: Clearly off the rails to an extent, complex mental health issues at play. Club leaders like Max and Goodwin put a mountain of work with help him through - seems to have paid off as he is off the USA for offseason training camp. 

- Trac:

Club went into closed book mode whilst media was churning out rumours about why he wants to leave (this is still unknown), where they flip-flop between oliver, medical care, "brand" (a word they made up and now are saying this came from Melbourne) - whilst also dragging Christian through the mud, despite both club and player repeatedly on the record saying he is suffering from a traumatic incident.

Trac releases statement saying he is staying way before trade period and way before anyone in the media expected. Imo, the club said f**k the media, we are going to work in-house with Trac and go public once its settled. This was done, we retain our best player - whilst media spin their stories to say Melb is still screwed and call for Rofey's head because she played a straight bat in an interview.

If I am a Melbourne player, Id be happy to know that the club will not react to rumours and work directly with me, for as long as it takes, before saying anything publicly. 

 

Believe what you want but I promise you this story isn't over by a long way.