40 minutes ago, demoncat said:

On the face of it this seems to be very unprofessional by the club

To conduct what essentially amounts to a welfare check without any HR or legal representatives present raises serious questions about the club’s practices and judgment, particularly given the topic of the meeting

Richardson also has a poor record as Football Manager of managing sensitive situations at the club (see the Petracca situation in 2024), so it doesn’t inspire much confidence that he’s handling these matters

Having said that, and as others have pointed out, we can only go on what Morris has reported, which clearly has a degree of bias given it’s been leaked almost two months after the fact and without any indication the leaker attempted to resolved this via the club first

I’ll reserve judgement until if/when more details come out, although the club’s statement seems to suggest they aren’t too worried, so perhaps there’s been a bit of mayo added to Morris report…

Isn't there always?

And who in their right mind has a 'private' meeting using Teams?

17 hours ago, Engorged Onion said:

That's just scuttlebutt 😂

Begs the question, keep what between ourselves? Something private that was shared by Richo or someone else from the club or the fact that the May situation was referenced on the call with the intent to make it clear it would be properly addressed?

Im not suggesting the club handled the whole thing perfectly but I'd argue not enough has been reported to prove they did something wrong.

My guess is they've sought to be transparent to hastily because of all the things we've not managed well previously. This administration wants to be seen as better, which is a sizeable relief.

Regardless of the content the mere concept of such a call is next level stupid. Much better to relay any message minus personal info, to players to discuss with their partners.

As to the reported content - if correct, I have no words for that level of stupidity and ignorance.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Lucifers Hero

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I wonder whether that explains a mysterious omission in recent weeks 🤔

I hope not. A player isn't responsible for what his partner does or says.

Even if a player acted on his partner's behalf he is entitled to support her. And if there was a 'leak' it was most probably a player as a partner is unlikely to directly approach the club or the AFLPA.

I would be horrified if the club sanctioned a player in such circumstances.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Lucifers Hero

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Because the issue with May involved his partner and the club are trying to be inclusive of the players partners. They may have stuffed up in how they did it (uncertain without specific info) but I can understand their intent.

The club can be inclusive of player partners in an everyday, normal fashion

The way we've done it has led to a public apology with any number of questions being asked

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I wonder whether that explains a mysterious omission in recent weeks 🤔

That's drawing a long bow

And when considering the amount of people who had access to the hook-up, there might be more than one person voicing their concerns

There is so much emotion in footy, in life.

There are always two sides to a story. I recall one of my cousins getting divorced. My entire family immediately vilified her husband with wrath. But I got on well with him. So I called to say how sorry I was, as I did separately with my cousin. I just listened as he was in pain. I heard his side. I had empathy for him as I did my cousin. Emotive issues are never black and white.

Two other things:

One, there is never one truth. How each of us sees a situation is influenced by the life we have led, our current circumstances, our relationship to the situation and whether that morning we merrily skipped out of the house or kicked the cat.

Two, there are wives and girlfriends who are salt of the earth people, making their husbands/partners better footballers, better people and raising beautiful families. Then there are others who, given the fame of their partner, believe they're in a permanent reality TV show. The latter seek drama.

None of us is perfect. We all make mistakes. So far, Smith, Guerra, Richo and Kingy have produced an environment Cornes describes as a "lightness at the club, they're playing with freedom, they're having fun, they're changing their game style, social media. It's now cool to support Melbourne." Overall, they're doing a great job to date. Just look at the number of kids turning up to games these days - how good is that!

So I cut the leadership some slack knowing there is no perfection.

I see this as an emotional domestic situation where there are no winners, just life lessons for all involved, including the club. I have a moment sadness for Maysie who gave us his heart and soul to claim that '21 flag. Then turn my mind to the possibilities against the Suns.

1 hour ago, GM11 said:

And who in their right mind has a 'private' meeting using Teams?

Exactly

I sit quite comfortably with the so called 'Whistleblower' as we don't need this sort of stuff happening at the club

As for Morris, he's just doing his job so it's no good shooting the messenger

What might come out of it is that club gets another wake-up call

At the end of the day a group of people from the same organisation were venting rumours about a couple in the said organisation.

Imagine not going to a party and you overhear everyone sat around talking about you.

Guerra needs to own this, make a public apology to Steven, his family and his friends, and work through possible defamation claims from Steven.

15 hours ago, Macca said:

More to the point is that this sort of stuff should not be happening, BDA

With so many people involved, the info on the hook-up was bound to get out ... the 15 partners but what about all the players as well (they'd all know, even if it was 2nd hand)

It's not Morris' fault, he's just doing his job

I'm actually surprised that the story took close on 2 months to surface

And of course, those given the sensitive information and then not relaying the information to the 2 people involved is an issue in itself

If you were close to May and his partner you'd be tempted to report the matter to the 2 people involved (and that might have happened)

The club has apologised for it's involvement in the affair

So what else are we waiting for? We've admitted guilt but it doesn't end there

May and his partner would be perfectly entitled to engage a legal team if the allegations are in fact, true

Things could get quite messy but don't worry, it probably won't affect on field matters (maybe)

But King has blotted his copybook ... it pays not to ever get too infatuated with any individual. It's like meeting your favourite author

Richo is on borrowed time and not sure what to make of Guerra

Bush-league error, all the same. My god, we're a dumb-[censored] club sometimes

Admitting public fault is getting on the front foot with the ordeal and limits what further information is ‘rumoured’…it doesn’t tell the entire story - again, we have limited knowledge of what was said & in what context, that’s rather significant than making assumptions on what was specifically discussed.

This is quite amateur, how can you blame the leaker when the actions taken by the club ethically and legally questionable.

Whatever flak we get here, we completely deserve it.

This is another issue of culture. Only solution is to move on Max and Kossie.

4 minutes ago, heath55 said:

Admitting public fault is getting on the front foot with the ordeal and limits what further information is ‘rumoured’…it doesn’t tell the entire story - again, we have limited knowledge of what was said & in what context, that’s rather significant than making assumptions on what was specifically discussed.

The quick apology says it all. Within hours of the story breaking the club was on the front foot apologising

But if you've done nothing wrong, why apologise?

The way you've described what may or may not have happened might see the club deny all (or go into denial) Or at least have a delayed apology

But the following is damning (in my view)

Richardson also allegedly said in the meeting: “Can we all just make sure we keep this information to ourselves?”

He wants everyone to keep it all a secret? In a footy club?

Morris also states that MFC have been very reasonable to deal with in regards to this story and appear to understand they have done the wrong thing regarding this. Let’s just hope we continue to be open and honest and cop our whack. Sounds like Richardson just signed his exit papers.

1 hour ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Regardless of the content the mere concept of such a call is next level stupid.

Sorry If I am misunderstanding your point, but what is wrong with a Zoom type meeting to welcome Player Partners including new Players’ Partners and introduce the new CEO and Coach,