Skuit

I imagine Christian would feel quite let down by Demon supporters based on the current thread-count compared to Jesse and Jack. Back to smile-watch and swimming & [censored] and perhaps we can show him the angst he deserves.

I was also a proponent of spreading it far and wide at any opportunity. Curious if it got through or they finally found it on here, but howabouts journalistic due diligence and all that? Seems convenient to air it now that Petracca is staying put and they all got led up the garden path, yet now that the MFC turns out to be reasonably stable after all they're coming after our beloved CP5. We love you Cristian 💞 Also, the rhetoric has somehow shifted from Roffey being under significant pressure to seeking out an orderly handover herself. And Kozzie is now content as well. Go figure.

Sounds like at least one of our players was conned in the past: Jesse Hogan on Tom Morris: “Honest leech. Had a job at Melbourne football club that was private and used it and leaked private conversations to get a leg up. Not even involving me but genuine leech of a personality. Have never seen a faker figure in media.”

Morris on the line to Kozzie: How are you doing mate? Have you been getting up to much lately? Yeah, It's a bit cold here in Melbourne, lol. Congratulations by the way. How's the bub? I know, my sister had a boy when she was living in the UK, and was pretty overwhelmed until returning back here to be closer to mum. I guess you'd be feeling a bit homesick right now? You should let them know, they could probably put in some extra support structures. Oh great, you told them during your exit interview. Good for you. Anyways, I gotta run . . .

I think you'll find it's the journalists making the calls.

Or immaturity and the desire to gossip?

To be crystal clear, I wrote that as a suggested plausible scenario in a highly speculative post. I certainly don't know that, and don't take it as fact. I do have little doubt though that we're leaking, even discounting media distortions. It might just be loose lips rather than being malicious, but we need to stamp it out and in the very least our players should be given additional training on media handling.

If Petracca had received approval for an extended mental health break, the details would remain confidential and not be disseminated among our playing group. It could then create envy and accusations of favouritism. But I agree with you that it indicates low IQ/EI if they couldn't figure it out for themselves, although if he appeared in good spirits in his previous interactions with the players post-injury it may have confused some. If they were aware his leave was granted for mental health reasons, then his activities while on break - namely looking cheerful in sun and working on his side hustle - could have also created some antagonism. Especially if it was known he had previously complained about culture or professional standards, and then appeared to be off doing his own thing $$$ when he was already our highest-paid player and we were struggling on-field. Again, I largely agree with you. I think there has been a relationship breakdown among the group - and apparently not for the first time (although the last time worked out well in the end) - due to high levels of immaturity. This has always struck me as a feature of our squad, in part as a factor of their personalities, but also our general list profile, with many of our star players coming through together and being key from a young age.

I’ve had some extra time on my hands since being canned from my night-job, so wrote up a synopsis for the latest volume. I drew my inspiration from having been in relationships before, but think this would be best targeted at the Young Adult market. Petracca was frustrated with us being a bit [censored] and other distractions prior to his injury. Particularly players who haven’t lived up to professional standards, such that he had to provide cover both in the forward line and middle because others couldn't get the job done. Nothing to do with the footy department or upper management, except for maybe not enforcing those standards a little more strenuously, although he doesn’t understand or appreciate the delicate juggling act they must perform. He gets severely injured. In shock, his loved ones at the time maybe lash out a bit at anyone they can blame, with the MFC being the first natural target. Things cool off. However, he continues to struggle with the emotional trauma of the injury, and frustration of being isolated and in rehab. He requests and is granted an extended interstate break, while others haven’t been afforded such a luxury during their own rehabs. Some players question whether that is fair. They may not have been told of the confidential mental health element. Petracca gets wind of such complaints, and possibly some bitchiness over his continued, jovial social media activity while recuperating, and spits the dummy, due to point one. He thinks people have no idea what he’s been through, and starts bringing up old grievances. His geographic separation from the club and isolation from chatting teammates, which adds to his insecurity, means the spat is allowed to fester. With a protective partner in his ear and a steady bank-roll from paid social media gigs, he thinks [censored] them, I’m out. Things are said along these lines to people within his circle, which then filters into the media. This creates even more tension, which the club is trying to resolve, but Christian begins emotionally justifying his actions, bringing up anything he can think of to defend himself. He makes the call to his manager at some stage, who tells him that securing a trade would be highly unlikely, but they can put some feelers out. As pointed out many times, he doesn’t just want a trade to any club out of the MFC, but a better overall deal for himself. Meanwhile, he comes back to the club, tells all his teammates of the trauma he’s been through, but things are all a bit awkward and forced, and he’s still stuck on the sidelines while others have to concentrate on training and playing. He feels just as isolated. Things spiral from there, but the club’s leadership, who are bewildered by how everything got so far out of hand without a clear complaint, have their adult pants on and know it will get sorted once he’s had the chance to get everything off his chest, quietly reminding him through outside channels that he is a contracted player. Possibly, the wave of bad press and media manipulations following the Roffey interview finally pushed the club to put its foot down and tell him to smarten the [censored] up and put an end to this mess. They then host a getaway for the players and coaching staff and everyone is chums again. The end.

This was the best I could find pertaining to the rules. It's astonishing (but actually not) how difficult it is access the official rules of our multi-billion dollar sport, and how vaguely they are written. 9.7 Further Exchange of Draft Selection (a) A Club may exchange a Draft selection which it has received from another Club, provided that the selection is not traded directly back to that Club.

Can anyone confirm if Adelaide are actually allowed to trade us back pick 25?

Petracca is disgruntled and considering a trade. Anti-Roffey brigade: It's her fault for not contacting him, and she's not doing enough to resolve the matter and minced her words in a radio interview. Two days later, Petracca publicly recommits to the club. Anti-Roffey brigade: well done Max Gawn.

For those of the Tom Morris opinion that Petracca is being held against his will because his management couldn't orchestrate a suitable trade: The MFC may have been relatively steadfast that we wouldn't entertain one, but there's seven weeks until the end of the trade period, and many on here are of the belief that if we got a suitable return his departure wouldn't be the worst thing purely from a list perspective - which I'm sure the club has weighed up as well. So outside of PR reasons, which could be managed in another way, why would both parties highlight the recommitment at this time, when anything can happen between now and the middle of October?

The amusing part was Oliver and May being approved as his replacements due to being much less controversial figures.

Now we get Clarry and Trac fit and fighting for day one and go scorched earth against our antagonists, both on and off the field. Many of the best teams cultivate a trench-warfare type of mentality. Similar internal rumblings at the end of 2020. At their best of course, we have a premiership-ready list. JVR steps up, we find him a KPF partner, Petty goes back, and we add another midfielder to stem some pressure on our three-pronged KPDs. If Goodwin can re-energise our squad, it won't take much to be right back in contention. I'm currently changing all my passwords to MFC2025!

Seriously? While being being paid $1 million per season and then be willing to absolutely destroy the club for his own ends (based on speculation)?

Why would you care about Christian Petracca's perspective compared to that of the Melbourne Football Club?

I would like Cristian Petracca to stay at our club, but this just a reminder to his camp of how many of us might be feeling right now, after drafting Christian as an immature kid and developing him as "as an individual and football player". https://www.facebook.com/7AFL/videos/most-annoying-teammate/1009563599219450/

Okay, I tried doing my best to defend the future of our club in a balanced manner. If Cristian [censored] on our club for the betterment of his brand, I will take the 'nuclear option'. That means mining the internet and bringing up every disparaging remark ever said about 'CP5'. It only seems fair, if that is his chosen path out of our club, which we all pay for, including his riches. Like: why didn't the Saints take Cristian when he was clearly the best player in his draft year? What's the true story about that time he reportedly ditched his teammates in New York? Why was he unanimously cited as the most annoying player at our club in a previous channel 7 promo? The above is kid's play. I have both the wherewithal and current motivation to go much deeper. If our club continues to get unreasonably denigrated, we should all be here to defend it.

Love this comment. We can have all our own opinions on our president, and her general performance in the job, but any grievances should be separated from the Petracca issue, not taken as a chance to burn the club down based on false reporting. I don't see the need for wholesale disruptive change, but others do. That's okay, but let's approach the issue based on facts rather than emotions and pre-conceived perceptions, especially when we have no idea what she and the board are doing behind the scenes, both on the home-base and Trac matters.

How are you feeling? It has been interesting. The first couple of weeks I was kind of in my own bubble to be honest. I wasn’t really on my phone much. I was in ICU for a bit, and then in hospital. And then just being home with B pretty much, being in isolation. Because of my spleen, and the impact it had on it, unable to see people. I had to get a lot of vaccinations done again. So it has been challenging, as I’m a bit of an extrovert. I love hanging around people, so that has also been quite tough. But at the same time it has been quite nice to switch off, and relax. And spend some real quality time with B, do some cooking, watch some TV. I’ve been trying to find the positives in a tough situation. So you go to hospital, and the first few scans show broken ribs. What happens then? (trying to recollect) Umm, what happens after the two broken ribs scan? I think, great, it’s only a week. Maybe I can play. Maysie played with two broken ribs. Then they notice my blood levels start dropping. My haemoglobin. Which I think signifies, resembles internal bleeding. And then got a re-scan again at Epworth, and noticed that it had significantly gotten worse. They’re not a trauma hospital, so they rushed me straight to the Alfred in an ambulence. The last thing I remember from that point of view was my mum bringing me a pizza. Then the nurse ran in and said no we need him to fast, as he’s about to go into surgery. I mean, it wasn’t a surgery, well technically it was. I wasn’t allowed to go to sleep. Because of the anaesthetic, because my haemoglobin levels were so low. I had a gas mask on, but they only do so much, I feel. They sent a coil up through my groin, to stop my spleen from . . . I think just stopping the bleeding there, and protecting that. (my only note throughout this transcript: Petracca was asked on the Howie Games podcast if he felt the surgeon cutting into him, and he said no. But – even though it makes no difference in many ways – were there any serious incisions involved? If not, why not just say that?) It’s been an amazing support network, in those few days you were in isolation. Who’s been reaching out? Has your phone been going off? It was pretty nuts to be honest. My phone was popping off from everyone. It was a really tough period, the first two and a half weeks. I literally haven’t been able to see anyone. So it has all just been through text messages. The support I have received has been incredible. From Roffey – Kate – down. It has been awesome. And now that I’ve been kind of out of this isolation period - Gawny came around, which was awesome. No doubt I’ll be back in the club in the next few weeks. But you know, it has been great. It has just been tough. What does the rest of season look like for you? Rehab, recovery. It will be a long stint on the sidelines. My biggest one in a long, long time, since my first year. So it is going to be a tough one. It is going to be an emotional roller-coaster. But one that, I guess, I can kind of look forward to. That’s something I’ve always loved challenges, being willing to learn and develop. And get better as both an individual and a footy player. I’m excited. I’m nervous. I’m anxious. A range of emotions; self doubt, lack of – there is just everything. But that’s just natural, and you expect that to happen with the injury. It’s going to be exciting. Hopefully get on the bench. Be a coach. We can sub Melky out when he’s playing, and I can hopefully take his role. Which would cool. Bring some positivity back.

Another quiet shift covering the foreign newsdesk. So as not to give my Demonland teammates the impression I'm just swanning around here beside the bay whipping up delicious and nutritious frittatas with @australianeggs, I took the initiative of typing up a transcript of the club's interview with Christian Petracca published in July. A couple notes: It's long, as I didn't want to cut anything out, such that I might be seen as unprofessional in my journalistic duties by framing the story or manipulating the content. That said, it has been very lightly edited for clarity. Please watch the video and let everyone know if you think any of those tiny edits are in any way disingenuous. The interviewer's questions are in bold, followed by Christian's responses. I put a few of the latter in italics, where it was especially pertinent to some of the apparent mistruths being commonly stated as fact on here and in the media. That said, I have no idea if what is said in the interview is factual. As per the above point though: I accept that people were upset by the Roffey interview, without maybe bothering to read (if they could) the transcript published in the Age, and determining for themselves what and wasn't actually stated on record. It's the nature of our society, or even just the human condition. The ironic part, and why I'm here, is I imagine a lot of people haven't bothered watching the Petracca interview. I urge you to do so, if you take body language and tone etc. as more instructive than words on 'paper'. I'll let you decide for yourself, but you should you watch it first before commenting on the current situation. See below for the full transcript.

Strange. I always pictured you as an extremely short man wearing a cap and flamboyant clothes, but holding a small whip rather than a football.

The tweet doesn't add any more or less validity to the claims, as Morris/McClure would share the same source - if not the account also being one of their own.

I agree to an extent that Gawn has 'performed' better in his public responses than Roffey. But I don't think that it's fair to compare the two. While Petracca is important to both their aspirations, for Gawn he is a teammate and friend. For Roffey, he is one of many employees, and no matter how well-performed Christian is, she has an entire organisation to consider. Yes, he will be seen as more important to its success than her, which isn't much different to most workplaces. If the earlier rumours of complaints around favouritism have any substance, then imagine how all our other players will feel if we just bend over backwards to every demand, especially considering the way it has been approached, even if they recognise their place in the pecking order. A slightly different set of circumstance, and the people here screaming for heads would be the same complaining about the tail wagging the dog.