Leaderboard

Now maybe the football media can start asking some questions about how the pies, the team every journ seemed to think was miles ahead of every other team last year, and set for a dynasty, missed the finals this year. Drinking their own bathwater? Culture issue? And perhaps ask why they allowed pednles to play with broken ribs foe two weeks Maybe an article about why noble has requested a trade? What about their list management - a third of their best 22 are 30 or over. Perhpas Whately's sanctimony bazooka can be turned on them.

Dear Trac, as a loyal supporter of the Melbourne Football Club, I write this letter with a weary heart but a glimmer of hope. For a decade, Demon supporters have watched you grow from a promising draft pick to a legend of our beloved club. Your journey has been our journey, your triumphs our triumphs. Remember that magical day in September 2021? When you stood tall at Optus Stadium, Norm Smith Medal around your neck, the premiership cup finally in your hands? That wasn't just your moment – it was ours too. You embodied the spirit of our club, the culmination of 57 years of hope and heartbreak. You made history, and despite being on the other side of the country, we were right there with you. We know this year hasn't been easy. We all held our breath when you went down against Collingwood. The news of your injuries – especially the damaged spleen – hit us hard. But true to form, you've been fighting your way back, and we're here supporting you every step of the way. Trac, we need to talk about the elephant in the room. The media speculation about your future at Melbourne is like a storm cloud hanging over our club. We've heard the whispers, which have gotten louder and louder. We've read the headlines and seen the pundits weigh in. But we haven't heard from you, and that silence is deafening. We understand that every player has the right to make decisions about their career. We know that our club is far from perfect and that it has work to do to get back to the top. But Trac, we want you to be part of that journey. We want you to be the one driving us to greater heights, just as you've done so many times before. You're more than just a player to us. You're a symbol of what Melbourne can be at its best – tough, skillful, and never giving up. Your presence on the field lifts not just your teammates, but every single one of us in the stands and at home. We're not asking you to accept mediocrity. All we're asking for is a chance. A chance to show you that Melbourne is where you belong. A chance to prove that together, we can overcome any obstacle and reach the pinnacle once again. If there are issues, let's address them. If there are concerns, let's talk about them. We want to be part of the solution, just as we hope you do. The uncertainty is tough, but we're tougher – we're Melbourne supporters, after all. Trac, whatever you decide, know this: You've given us moments we'll cherish forever. You've been a beacon of hope in dark times and a leader in our finest hour. We believe in you, and we believe in what you and the club can achieve together. This is also your chance to play for your mate Angus Brayshaw, who unlike you, will never take to the field again. Your continued presence on the field would honour his legacy and the spirit of mateship that has previously defined our club. The ball's in your court now. We're here, we're listening, and we're ready to stand by you. All we ask is that you give us, and Melbourne, a fair go. From the bottom of our red and blue hearts, The Melbourne Football Club Faithful

Folks on here wanted Christian to speak. He has spoken. He is staying. Time to get behind him Time to drop the bickering. It is my guess Max was a major architect of the bridge that was built between the club and Christian. Max will make sure the player are all behind him. I'm ecstatic !!!! Onward and upward to 2025.

😳 How do l delete all my recent comments?

Every Melbourne supporter should and will be happy that Trac is not leaving. Equally I think we are entitled to be disappointed with how these last few weeks played out. It was never necessary for this to spill into the media and become a MFC vs Petracca showdown, where ultimately both our club and his brand were dragged through the mud. I hope we can move on from this and turn our attention and focus to fixing the problems that need to be fixed.

I unfollowed his cooking instagram and an hour later he re-committed himself to the club. You’re all welcome, I’m gonna follow it again now.

Too Soon?

Throughout this whole process I've always wanted him to say, because I have faith in his ability to return to being a top 5 player. He is too good, and too professional, not to IMO. So my overall reaction to this news is one of excitement, happiness and relief. Of course, the statement certainly reads like he's saying "I'm not happy, but there's no way I can get out and so I'm staying, and hopefully things improve from here". However, in combination with Gawn's very well-spoken words yesterday on radio, I can see how we're here, and I hold out genuine hope that throughout this process the club has committed to addressing what are likely very real issues. The disappointment is that there has been damage done to Trac's relationship with us, the fans (probably the players too but that's harder to assess than simply reading these 228 pages). He was my favourite player. Maybe he still will be, but I know that many Melbourne fans are going to have, in the back of their minds, the thought that he isn't fully committed, or still has an eye on the door, or has his own "brand" higher on his list of priorities than us or the club. The way we respond to the issues Trac has raised becomes, IMO, one of the most singularly important things this club has done in decades. If we do this right, this could bring the club together and improve us in ways that otherwise would have continued to be ignored. But if we do this wrong, the hole we'll fall into next year will be far greater than the one we've been in the last two weeks.

If you think this has not harmed our brand and the perception people have of our club, you’re an absolute fool and you don’t understand anything about the importance of brand management. Anytime your club is in the news for failing to manage a star player, whether true or not, it is damaging. It creates a perception that we are poorly run and have a poor culture. Bury your head in the sand all you like, but the bottom line is, this club has been in the news for all the wrong reasons over the past 12 months and that is not good for sponsors, membership numbers or attracting players from other clubs.

For all those that think Christian's commitment is half hearted and he is staying because he had no choice, lighten up and enjoy what is ahead. Otherwise it will be a miserable year around here if folks keep playing that song. Lets remember Richmond fans got behind Dusty, who actively wooed other clubs, no takers, he stayed, And. the rest is history: 3 Flags, 3 NSM, 1 Brownlow. Christian is quite capable of doing something similar. As I said earlier get behind him.

How I will look at Carlton and Collingwood fans when Trac wins his 2nd Norm Smith next year.

TRAC IS BACK !!!!!

Lol. As if I would be sharing tens of dollars with @binman

What am I to do with the 40 hours just freed up next week?

The point I’m making, which you’ve completely missed in your ramblings, is that the truth doesn’t matter only perception matters. I said plenty of times before that we have no more or no less issues than any other club. What we do have, is an inability to control the narrative. It is damaging to be in the news constantly for all the wrong reasons. I too believe we can bounce back next year, but we have work to do in all areas to get there and that includes our comms. Don’t believe me? Listen to Gawn discuss this very issue yesterday.

Let this be a reminder to all. No one does an off-season quite like us. Onto 2025

Yep. Next year is a still big watch for me. Only takes for Collingwood to have their 1st rounder in place and then who knows. This isn't over.

After our meditation session and a special mushroom risotto, I drove Trac down to Guildford and we summoned the spirit of RDB. I threatened to put on my old Buffalo Springfield albums. That was enough to get him to commit. Hes sleeping off the Risotto in the greenhouse . In him the force strong will be.

Back off mate. Jaded has been a respected longtime poster and has runs on the board. You are just a babe in arms on this forum.

Scare away potential recruits? Good lord. Sure, we might have had our share of drama, but every single football club has drama going on behind the scenes. And all our real drama was last season - clarry, Smith, Grundy. If the drama was so unbearable for tracc he could have got to another club that would have satisfied the dees with drafts and trades. It clearly wasn't so unbearable. And if the issues are so bad, explain to me why young guns Windsor and Kolt resigned in july when neither had to worry about doing so for another two years. Ditto for langers, who signed in August. Ditto Turner, Laurie, amw and Jefferson. But two weeks of tracc drama, which ends with him staying, and a potential recruit is going to say, no way, i ain't going to the dees. Right.

Take a look at this hero, parading around doing a victory, as if the whole messy situation hasn’t laid bare some serious, underlying issues at the club—issues we’ve been painfully aware of for quite some time. If you truly believe that journalists like Morris, McClure, and their cohorts weren’t onto something, you’re fooling yourself. Sure, they have a tendency to sensationalize, mixing truths, half-truths, and a bit of rumor, but if you think there’s nothing to this story, you’re burying your head in the sand. Had Collingwood or Carlton possessed the draft capital, he’d be gone. And to be honest, I couldn’t have blamed him for jumping ship from this sinking Titanic. I’d be angry, [censored] off, and deeply saddened, but at least I’d understand. The notion that there was never any substance to this story is laughable, especially when Trac could have shut it all down on Day 2. Yet here we are, 19 days later, with silence still hanging in the air. Ask yourself why it wasn't shut down? And don't just claim that there was nothing to the reports. Stop acting like you’re the second coming. Our club has a lot of work to do if we’re going to keep Trac and the rest of the team content. If we don’t make significant changes, we’ll be staring down the barrel of a disaster this time next year.

I’m trying to justify nothing. Everything I’ve said about Trac trying to promote his brand is 100% correct and my information doesn’t come from the media. I have actual sources because believe it or not, I work in a similar field. I have 0 issues with Trac raising concerns and never once said I do. I have many issues with his concerns being leaked to the media in an attempt to try to force our hand to trade him. I have issues with the fact that leaking this info to the media has caused issues within the playing group. I have issues that our club needlessly was dragged through the mud again for issues that needed to be kept in house. I have only respect for leaders who demand better. I just don’t want them to do it publicly as ultimately it only hurt the club and caused unnecessary distraction.

Anyone not renewing because they’re unhappy with board or management or a particular player is weak as [censored]. Financial reasons I can understand (although I would suggest downgrading to cheaper options rather than cancelling) but punishing the club as a [censored] protest against any individual(s) is childish and self-defeating.

At this stage I'm happy to wait for him to hand over the captaincy to George.

Does this mean Trac will be doing the Ringwood RSL talk?

He's on there now making a big club sandwich.

I’d just like to come out and say I couldn’t orchestrate a trade and it is with unbridled enthusiasm I commit to the Demons

I said this weeks ago I am glad he bought up issues he didn’t like. Get them sorted This is a warning to the MFC in my opinion Take it seriously Demons

Had to dig it out of the Recycling Bin to be honest.

Far out, some of you are pathetic. He doesn’t speak, you go after him, he does speak, oh that’s not good enough. Things needed to change and hopefully things are in motion. I’m glad he’s rattled a few cages. A lot of the stuff in the media could be full of [censored]. I mean how many times are they wrong. Here’s a prime example

I wasn’t worried….🤥🤥🤥

Looks like your letter worked

I was thinking something similar. If, and it's a big if, clarry gets super fit and tracc gets close to his optimal fitness we won't be talking about our midfield. Particularly with kolt looking a monty to play as a mid forward pretty soon (waxing with tracc?) and having pick 5 in a draft with good midfield depth. JVR, Turner, Mcvee, Kolt and Windsor will go up a level with another preseason. As you suggest, a huge preseason is critical - and if they can use this to get fired up all the good. Having a few extra weeks break wont hurt either.

Do we say he's 28 instead of 29 now he's staying?

Tom relieves himself way too often for my liking.

Shelly Health one of the most underrated players in the AFLW.

The media can spin it however they like. as long as we hold a united front and Kozzy , trac and clary are there next year. we will make finals , and another pre season for Roo, Disco and Petts will show the naysayers we are back baby!

Mate you’ve been here 5 months. Go take a hike or put me on ignore. I give negative [censored] about what you do or don’t believe.

I am so happy My 9yo is even happier

I’m glad I can still enjoy watching the 2021 grand final!

I think end of next year will be very, very interesting. I personally suspect this has only occurred due to the inability for a trade to be facilitated and the subsequent realisation. Either way, there is a lot of work to be done from both the Petracca camp and the MFC to reconcile and authentically repair relationships.

Reminds me of when I was kid and refused to go back to school at the end of holidays because I hated the nuns. My dad said I will go back. The next day I went back to school. I had no choice.

I’m not normally a conspiracy theory kind of guy but I’m pretty confident Trac, @Demonland and @binman orchestrated this whole charade for extra clicks. Can you imagine the increase in google ad revenue from Demonland? Always follow the money.

I liked Max on the radio yesterday with this quote. It sums up Maclure and Morris perfectly "I missed the memo when you could write on gossip. I thought you had to get facts."

I don't understand why people are blaming the leaks and mfc brand damage on Christian and his advisors. It means you believe the Morris/McClure trash ... if we believe them we need to believe reports the club/players leaked and ipso facto they have also damaged the club's 'brand'. Lets face it the damage to our brand started 12 months ago when other players' poor behaviour was front and sent in the media and is where the poor culture narrative started. The brand damage continued thru 2024 as did the associated poor culture narrative. The Christian drama has been sorted in 3 weeks. The dramas and brand damage by others of 12 months are still not fully resolved. Stop blaming him for the club's image woes!!!

Time for the redemption arc part of the movie.

Pert and Roffey both need to go in my opinion, they're the heads of the ship and they're driving us into an iceburg. Lets get some real leadership, get a full external review of absolutely everything done and re-build the club to give us a fighting chance.