KozzyCan

Even so.

Would be pretty concerning if players are calling up journalists just to gossip about their teammates like high-schoolers.

Imo any leaks from the playing group speak to a lack of trust in the club leadership to message properly themselves.

Believe what you want but I promise you this story isn't over by a long way.

I mean Houston and Port handled that pretty maturely I think. They were happy for him to go if a good deal could be done, it couldn't be and he was invited back into the fold. But to what you're saying, every club has leaks, it's true. Ours is a sieve and the leaks present a pretty adversarial relationship between the club and players who step out of line. Players having issues with their clubs is nothing new but good clubs should handle all this stuff in house. No coincidence that numerous senior players have admitted to be frustrated by club comms recently.

Pretty naive if you think no one from the club talks to the media.

That is madness.

Club really needs to sort out these leaks. Talk a big game about avoiding media circuses but gone to war in the press with our most decorated players two years running.

https://mcc.org.au/whats-on/latest-news/2021/july/steven-smith-inducted-as-a-mcc-honorary-life-member

Judging by her answers she probably hasn't even heard the news that Trac is staying.

We traded our second for McAdam last year. We have Sydney's second rounder from Grundy. ANB might be an avenue for us to get our second rounder back.

Imo Max is the only person at the club who has shown proper leadership this year. He's asked to do far more than any other captain in the comp.

Those guys were OOC. We would have asked for more.

I think it was certainly a tough interview to get right but only because of everything that came before it. If one of Petracca's issues with the club is that he felt he was abandoned after his injury and the president has not spoken to him or his family then there's not much that can be said for it. But if it was just that then it could have been remedied. She could have admitted fault in that area and promised to do better. Or she could have laid out a real plan for how we're going to overcome these issues. At the moment everything out of the club has been handwaving, excuses and passing the buck. Ultimately the fact that we've gotten to this point is the bigger problem than the interview itself.

What are you trying to say here? Yes, people wanted the president to speak. Yes, people wanted to see how invested she is in the club and get some reassurance over how we are dealing with the current challenges being faced. When she turned up to that interview woefully under-prepared and completely out of touch it was an embarrassment and showed she's not up to it. What people actually want to see is competent leadership.

Was more thinking of this:

That first bit is why I'm sus that this is a legit trade request. Could be other things too. Like the club gauging what we could get if we blew the list up and went full rebuild. Kozzy would be a strange choice to trade though. There's a lot of caveats in those tweets especially the bit 'if a trade is too hard, happy to stay at Melbourne' Doesn't seem anywhere near the Petracca situation.

Waterman signed an extension last year. He'd be worth a lot more after this season.

I really don't see an issue with it. Playing the field to see his worth. Club can always say no. Waterman is doing the same at the Eagles off the back of our interest. Club has to pay 95% of the cap and players have to accept less so that all the stars can fit on the list. If the highest paid player goes and we're only recruiting from the draft then that extra money should be spread around the senior players.

Why not? If Petracca goes there will be a 1m+ hole in the cap to be filled. Viney leveraged an offer from North to get an extension with us only a couple of weeks ago.

Get the feeling this is his management leveraging the current situation for a contract renegotiation.

I'm very curious about this. Any idea why they are so put off by her?

Isn't replacing the President and board where you start if we are to seek change? They set the direction of the club, they're the ones who can call for a review and set the parameters of such a process. They're the ones to intervene if something goes wrong that can't be adequately resolved at the lower levels. On the Petracca issue the Coach, CEO, President and Footy boss are all marching to the beat of the same drum which implies a level of complacency across all the leadership positions that has lead us to this point.

Which one was that?

"I can't speak to this. I'm not across that. Media media media."