7 minutes ago, JJJ said:

It’s really incredible. As I mentioned months ago, players weren’t happy with some of the going ons at the club. Senior players. 

It’s not like Bailey Laurie and Jefferson were on hunger strike until selected or anything like that. We had multiple senior players who drove us to a Premiership wanting change. 

How we have not reassured them that they were heard and kept them in a good headspace is mind numbingly stupid.

Also, the leaks could be from the management group, but Connor’s and his bunch of handbags don’t usually do this. It’s weird. 

Last point, StKilda didn’t like Petracca’s attitude and maturity prior to his draft year. Maybe they were right 10 years later?!?

Thats a joke by the way.

The last thing Matthew Jefferson needs to go on is a hunger strike.

Just now, Ted Lasso said:

Where are his management in all of this? Are they actually on board with a strategy that serves to only damage relations with the club he's almost certainly going to have to return to in 2025? 

 

I want to know that too. Connor and co manage a hell of a lot of Melbourne players. I don’t know why they themselves would [censored] the club off by deliberately airing dirty laundry, when we’ve by and large always had a good relationship with them. 
We are known to be fair in our trade dealings. Maybe they think we will bend over if Trac carries on with this dummy spit? Remember his brother works there, so I’m not too sure how professional this whole thing truly is. 

2 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

ANB asking for a trade has NOTHING to do with anything of this nature. Like absolutely nothing. Just FYI. 

Yep. ANB is solid and will be missed.

If he wants to go to Collingwood, tell them we'll have the Lexus Centre (or whatever it is called now) as part of the deal.

That'll sort out the home base issue. 

1 minute ago, Jaded No More said:

I want to know that too. Connor and co manage a hell of a lot of Melbourne players. I don’t know why they themselves would [censored] the club off by deliberately airing dirty laundry, when we’ve by and large always had a good relationship with them. 
We are known to be fair in our trade dealings. Maybe they think we will bend over if Trac carries on with this dummy spit? Remember his brother works there, so I’m not too sure how professional this whole thing truly is. 

This is why I said it’s weird. Paul Connors would rather have his client come to him with the request and then work with the destination club on a deal. But it’s usually all done relatively quietly. To his credit, Paul is one agent who doesn’t like seeing clubs pulled through the mud. He appreciates that he needs them onside to do things his way.

5 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

ANB asking for a trade has NOTHING to do with anything of this nature. Like absolutely nothing. Just FYI. 

Sorry, I should have phrased that differently. I was more curious about "Leaders". 

Oh boy the posts are getting weirder and weirder. It must be bedtime. I see Binman’s PA has changed his username to Adam The God and now nothing makes sense anymore 😵‍💫

7 minutes ago, Nascent said:

You mention multiple players, may I ask if that's still the case or has it whittled down to just petracca now?

At the time there were multiple players, including Petracca, but that list has definitely shrunk recently. 

Some of our younger players were miffed about selection too but I understand that the coaches sorted that out.

1 minute ago, JJJ said:

 

Some of our younger players were miffed about selection too but I understand that the coaches sorted that out.

Well if that’s not a dime a dozen complaint heard across 18 clubs on a weekly basis, I don’t know what is… poor Jefferson being yelled at weekly by PF to get selected couldn’t have helped 😂

Edited August 18, 2024Aug 18 by Jaded No More

24 minutes ago, praha said:

This is all very bizarre. There must be more to it. And tbh it's leaning towards not looking good for Petracca. Maybe it's just me but it seems like his management is using this whole thing to help drive and justify a trade request. 

If I were Petracca's publicist right now I'd be strongly encouraging him to come out and either make a commitment to the club or make a trade request. 

Allowing Tom Morris to control the narrative here is doing huge damage to his brand.

Agreed.
His brand is blowing up and he needs to clear the air one way or another.  The longer this festers, the more he’s alienating himself from supporters and teammates.  
Until something definitive is aired, the more ‘reporters’ will feel emboldened to continue to add their own ‘colour’ to the story.

 

53 minutes ago, Swooper Northey said:

Even if there were some crossed wires between players and Petracca as to why he was recuperating in Noosa and wasn't in Melbourne with his teammates, surely this could be easily rectified? And as a leader of the club, if he felt the message wasn't getting through and he was worried about it, couldn't he clarify it? The players have ample ways of communicating these days - phone calls, SMS, email, WhatsApp, messenger etc. It ain't hard.

Why was it Trac's job to 'clarify it' to the players?  He probably had no idea what the players were told.   Did anyone tell him that or tell him players were frustrated?

Someone at the Club approved his trip to Noosa.  Somehow the reasons for it didn't filter down to players but presumably Richardson, Goodwin and Gawn knew.

Yet no one seems to have told the players the reasons leaving them to guess and get frustrated.  And players could have asked the captain or coach. 

1 minute ago, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

Agreed.
His brand is blowing up and he needs to clear the air one way or another.  The longer this festers, the more he’s alienating himself from supporters and teammates.  
Until something definitive is aired, the more ‘reporters’ will feel emboldened to continue to add their own ‘colour’ to the story.

 

I suspect we will be in limbo for quite some time.

The main milestones will be end of trade week and 1st day of preseason.

 

1 minute ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Why was it Trac's job to 'clarify it' to the players?  He probably had no idea what the players were told.   Did anyone tell him that or tell him players were frustrated?

Someone at the Club approved his trip to Noosa.  Somehow the reasons for it didn't filter down to players but presumably Richardson, Goodwin and Gawn knew.

Yet no one seems to have told the players the reasons leaving them to guess and get frustrated.  And players could have asked the captain or coach. 

If players were angry at the Noosa trip and later calmed once explained the situation, it's negligence on Richo's part IMV.

17 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Your first post in over 10 years and it’s a doozy. Don’t know what the last sentence has to do with any of this, but maybe that’s just me.

I’m surprised the mods allow you to post under that username. Again, maybe that’s just me.

🤷‍♀️

And you joined the forum the year we started playing REALLY well. Says it all really. 
 

Quite happy to change my username if the mods ask me too. I’ve had it for almost 20 years soooo. 🤷🏼‍♀️

1 minute ago, Gawndy the Great said:

I suspect we will be in limbo for quite some time.

The main milestones will be end of trade week and 1st day of preseason.

 

Trades the size of Petracca take months, sometimes a year to sort out. 
You are talking about not just a club finding currency to satisfy us, but also clearing $5,000,000 in salary cap space. 

Unless Trac’s management has been trying to arrange a trade for months on end, I can’t see how 14 days get it done. 

6 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

If players were angry at the Noosa trip and later calmed once explained the situation, it's negligence on Richo's part IMV.

Someone needs to take responsibility, at least internally, for this shiit show of communication missteps, from the initial insensitive press releases to the communication breakdowns with Trac's family and with the players. 

Edited August 18, 2024Aug 18 by Lucifers Hero

3 minutes ago, melbournefc said:

Quite happy to change my username if the mods ask me too. I’ve had it for almost 20 years soooo. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to change it. 

21 minutes ago, Demonland said:

 

Can you give some context of why you think posting this tweet adds to the conversation? A lot of people tweet a lot of stuff, and some on here might not know who this person is. And also might have some strong opinions on it. 

2 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Someone needs to take responsibility, at least internally, for this shiit show of communication breakdowns with Trac's family and with the players, that may result in losing Trac.

If it is indeed a big part of the frustration puzzle for Trac, Pert's cutting of the social media budget (that many of us have complained about for a while now) could have been the simplest thing to get right. 

That's not on the FD. So if it's not Pert, who is going to take responsibility?

1 minute ago, Adam The God said:

If it is indeed a big part of the frustration puzzle for Trac, Pert's cutting of the social media budget (that many of us have complained about for a while now) could have been the simplest thing to get right. 

That's not on the FD. So if it's not Pert, who is going to take responsibility?

Didn’t we bring Pettyfor on board? Has she not started yet? 
Our comms are deplorable. Have been for years. 

3 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

If it is indeed a big part of the frustration puzzle for Trac, Pert's cutting of the social media budget (that many of us have complained about for a while now) could have been the simplest thing to get right. 

That's not on the FD. So if it's not Pert, who is going to take responsibility?

I don't know whose responsibility it is. All I know it wasn't Trac;s responsibility to do the comms especially as he was having operations for some time after the injury itself.

Edited August 18, 2024Aug 18 by Lucifers Hero

9 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Trades the size of Petracca take months, sometimes a year to sort out. 
You are talking about not just a club finding currency to satisfy us, but also clearing $5,000,000 in salary cap space. 

Unless Trac’s management has been trying to arrange a trade for months on end, I can’t see how 14 days get it done. 

this

getting the deal done in such a short time frame will make it so hard to unlock

it's unlikely it's going to be any of the non-vic sides, and few of the vic clubs have the capability of freeing the cap space and satisfying us in a trade

it's similar to the mooted oliver deal at the end of last season; to make it happen is very, very hard to do with some 6 weeks until the trade period begins, and a mere 8 til it closes

5 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

If players were angry at the Noosa trip and later calmed once explained the situation, it's negligence on Richo's part IMV.

I find this whole thing laughable, confusing and frustrating. These guys spend every waking moment together…..almost. How on earth aren’t they calling each other smsing on a regular basis? Why do Comms need to go through the FD? The players should be talking him to regularly to see what’s going on. 

I call BS on this and frankly Tracs camp making this an issue when it’s not. It’s way over the top and dramatic and I’ll go as far as saying it’s being used an excuse.

 

15 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Trades the size of Petracca take months, sometimes a year to sort out. 
You are talking about not just a club finding currency to satisfy us, but also clearing $5,000,000 in salary cap space. 

Unless Trac’s management has been trying to arrange a trade for months on end, I can’t see how 14 days get it done. 

Which also gives us time to work out suitable compensation and who we can bring in as well. 

6 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

I don't know whose responsibility it is. All I know it wasn't Trac;s responsibility to do the comms especially as he was having operations for some time after the injury itself.

No, completely agree. Very poor by the club if it's all true.