titan_uranus

The interview wasn't bad. It was awful. Her interview responses were contradictory, confusing, disappointing and, worst of all, at times incredulous. How has she not spoken with Trac's family despite the severity of his injury and the focus at the time on whether it was right for him to have gone back on the field? The issue was raised 2.5 months ago, not just this week. Yes, as president she is rightfully and reasonably a step or two removed from football operations. But the issues facing us with Trac (as well as Clarry, Smith and perhaps ANB/Pickett wanting out) aren't exclusively football department issues. If she attempted to dead-bat the questions, she failed miserably given how much she opened herself up to criticism. It's difficult, if not impossible, to resist the calls coming thick and fast now that she is incapable of doing her job and incapable of holding her role as president.

Otherwise, can’t decide what’s more egregiously wrong: - Ryan and McGovern both selected over Andrews - Waterman selected over Curnow and Stengle

A reminder that not everything about this club sucks right now. The greatest ruck the game has ever seen.

I’m being a touch facetious, but losing Trac and Koz does huge damage to our marketability, let alone our chances of getting out of the bottom 6. PS if A-grade players don’t want to be here, that’s equally an existential issue for us.

@Adam The God if Koz and Trac both leave, how hyperbolic is it now to suggest this club will fold?

Things can change. In the last week a significant amount of water has gone under the Petracca bridge. Who knows what impact that has had on Koz. It’s not at all outlandish to think that he’s changed his mind in the last week.

If the report was merely that he’s homesick, I’d agree. But the report is that he wants to explore a trade. Which to me, is a step further down the track. And in circumstances where we’ve very clearly granted ANB’s request to go home for family reasons, we’re going to be in dangerous territory if we refuse his request without good reason (there may be good reason, but it’s concerning nevertheless).

The article also says, for what it’s worth: “It’s believed Pickett’s desire is family focussed after he and his partner welcomed their first child earlier this year, and is in no way linked to ongoing cultural questions surrounding the Demons.” It’s still seriously concerning.

I wrote that 2.5 weeks ago when the story first broke. If the truth lies at the Trac end of the spectrum, and the club has messed up as much as he is going to allege, then it will all come out, and we will go into 2025 with our formerly most popular, talented and marketable player playing somewhere else whilst we try to get out of the bottom 6 with potentially no big name recruits to add to the list, playing in front of tiny crowds in dud timeslots, and ongoing off field distractions. It may have been hyperbolic and was definitely driven by emotion but I don’t think it’s that outlandish.

Agree. The OP could have just written a post in the Petracca thread along the lines of “is anyone concerned that Trac’s brother works for his management team”? That is, though, not the OP’s way.

so whatever’s going wrong at the club is our fault? Far out. What an absolutely ridiculous thing to say. The club’s problems are the problems of the board, management, FD etc. Supporters being loyal doesn’t change that. Collingwood supporters didn’t cause the Do Better issue. Hawthorn supporters didn’t cause the Cyril Rioli lawsuit. Essendon supporters didn’t cause the drugs scandal.

Read the article - he wants to go to GC for family reasons.

Run the counter-factual. If there was no truth to any of this, why hasn't Petracca or his manager said so? There is, for example, no truth to the Harry McKay stuff, as we know his manager has said as much today. But if there was, as you seem to think, no truth to any of the Petracca stuff, it's a very simple solution for him or his manager to say so. The fact that they haven't is all you need to know that there is at least some truth to what is going on. And that's before you get to the people who are citing this who are not McClure (e.g. Cal Twomey, who AFAK is never wrong, agreed with it two weeks ago, Sam Edmund's agreed with it, Matthew Lloyd's had word of it, Caro's heard it, Damian Barrett's heard it). I lean far more to the optimistic side than the pessimistic side, I honestly think Trac is my favourite ever Melbourne player, and I will be genuinely sad if he ever plays for any other club, but it is mindboggling to me that anyone would still be suggesting this might all be made up.

That sort of statement would do absolutely nothing. The media would go to town on it ("Petracca refuses to commit"). Members and Demonlanders would do the same.

AFL 2024: Melbourne Demons’ Christian Petracca relives life-threatening injury as talk of trade request escalates (theage.com.au) “It’s been really, really tough. Probably the most traumatic thing I’ve experienced in my life. The trauma of everything … it’s actually not necessarily the incident of it, it’s the aftermath of it. The surgery in general was a really traumatic experience: being awake for it, internal bleeding, wasn’t able to be put to sleep under anaesthetic. I can think of every single thing happening at that time,” Petracca said on the Howie Games podcast. “This must have been 3am in the morning. I didn’t know at the time; I was drugged up. Bella (Petracca’s partner) came to the ICU the next day and basically said that at three in the morning … we got the number off the surgeon because he called to say you might not make it, basically. He’s in critical condition.” Asked if there were fears he might not survive the operation, Petracca replied: “Yeah, because there was internal bleeding and everything. So (I was) in serious and critical condition. For me, it was more that, that hit home rather than the actual injury itself. I’ll be fine physically, and I’ll be able to train and get back to playing and everything. It’s just more that ... the people around you feel it more than you,” Petracca said. “Even since then, the last six, seven weeks have been really tough on both of us. She’s been amazing for me since I first met her but just through this experience. I’ve got insomnia I feel like, to be honest, because of stuff like that. I can’t sleep because of stuff like that … I’m having to see a trauma psych to deal with what’s going on.” Petracca said there was “a lot of stuff” he was dealing with. “The self-doubt, the trauma, and the stress of everything. I’ve been in-and-out of hospital three or four times through emergency,” he said. Think what you want about Trac and what he's currently doing, but be in no doubt: he has been through a level of trauma that most of us (thankfully) cannot comprehend.

Source?

Even if we get 2023 Oliver, or even better, 2018-2022 Oliver, are we going to seriously compete without Trac and without another midfield addition? If Trac leaves, that IMO only heightens our need to find the best midfielder available.

You may be right about the need for change at the top, but if I were you I'd refrain from suggesting that some posters on here are in the wrong for "turning on Trac". You were one of those just a few days ago. Reality is, none of us on here know the true story, we're all reacting to what's been reported in the media, many of us consider Trac to be one of our all-time favourite players, and seeing this play out without any certainty and with rumours and suggestions and ideas flying around is necessarily going to lead to some posters becoming disenfranchised from Trac. It's a sad, sad state of affairs.

I'm not saying the club's above scrutiny - far from it - but I'm not sure I agree with Hutchy on this, not yet anyway. The vibe around the club last week was a lot more positive, with talk that Trac had returned to the club, smile on face, etc. It may well be that the club genuinely thought that things were trending in the right direction, and thought he was in a position to say something to that effect. He agreed to do the interview because he heard the panel was three soft ex-players and no journos. He could come out, say something, not be grilled, and walk away. But when he finds out there's a journo, he doesn't want that, and he walks off. Perhaps at that point he feels the club lets him down by blaming him, if that's what happened, but I'm not convinced this is a sign of the club being "naive", as Hutchy said.

I like Xerri's season but it's honestly just anti-Melbourne bias or Gawn AA fatigue to suggest Xerri's had a better year. Gawn's the AA ruck, and deserves it.

IMO, the three most telling pieces of information to come out of tonight's reporting are: Sam Edmund saying he wants to play somewhere with "leadership from the top office". As clear an indication as we've had that there are issues between Trac and the board, and/or Pert, and/or Richardson. Caro saying that there was a board meeting going on as Footy Classified went to air. It sounded like that was a snap meeting. If so, that's not the sign of a club who is wholly resolute in the whole "we're not trading him" piece (although that may remain the position following the meeting). Lloyd saying that he's spoken with other players at the club who now think it's best that Trac leaves. That's almost the biggest piece of news to come out of it all.

Take the two polar extremes. At one end, you have a club who has completely mismanaged every aspect relating to this situation, whether it's how we dealt with Clarry last year, or Trac's KB injury, or whatever else is going wrong behind the scenes. We are falling apart and the most professional player on our list doesn't want to be a part of that any more. At the other end, you have a player who has become disenfranchised from the club and is seemingly prioritising selfish desires over the club's and his teammates, all the while tearing the club down from the inside and making us even worse off than whatever we were before. Neither of those situations will be entirely true. But I'm sure the truth is a blend of both. For the club to be in a situation now where our most important player, both on-field and off-field, no longer wants to be here is an indictment on the club. It does not matter what you think about Trac, it is an indictment on the club that we are even anywhere near this level. But there is a degree of Trac prioritising the wrong things that I think is becoming clearer. Part of that may well be the impact of his injury on his decision-making, but regardless, we now have a player who appears to no longer have the trust or connection with his own teammates, and I think that says something about how he has carried himself. Whether or not this is fixable remains to be seen. If there isn't a deal out there that is extraordinarily substantial in value, it's going to have to be fixable, because Trac leaving pushes us down into levels of irrelevance that we literally cannot afford right now.