Jaded No More

But but but we have negative one ruckman on our list beyond Gawn, so how is giving Gawn another 2 years bad for our list health? We are not exactly brimming with ruck talent. Does anyone seriously think that Gawn wouldn't be able to contribute, even as a backup, in 2 seasons? Look at some of the absolute NQRs that have rucked in a premiership after the age of 30. If Gawn drops his output by 50% in 2 years time, he will still be better than half the rucks in the competition. Besides, it's ridiculous to suggest we signed him as a PR move, he didn't decide last night to take George on a bike ride, then call Tim Lamb and say "George finally learnt the words to the song, let me sign a 2 year extension".

I am sure an in-principle deal has already been made with one of the SA teams. The club has known for a while that he's leaving, and they would not do him wrong by playing hardball. They understand why he's leaving, and they will support that move completely.

He probably did. He probably said he needs to take a break, but then spent the entire time actually working on his personal social media content, while also perhaps continuing to complain about the standards and behaviors inside the club. Maybe players didn’t like that. There is definitely more to this than just Trac going to Noosa and the players being annoyed that they weren’t allowed to go on holidays too. Compare and contrast with Langdon going to his sister’s wedding. Not sure there would be much angst there. Either way, good people management would see this tension rising and put an immediate stop to it via correct mediation process. Not let it fester and boil over.

Well I don’t know because maybe she hasn’t started. We poached her from the Pies, so perhaps she has a contractual obligation to fulfill there until the end of the season. Either way, the club has for years, thru poor mismanagement of brand communication, allowed the media to drive this narrative around our club. We should be controlling what goes out and what is said about us in the media. Not the other way around. I’ve been a brand and product manager for over 15 years and I can tell you categorically, that making a product look good, is far more important than the product itself actually being good. Perception is everything.

Didn’t we bring Pettyfor on board? Has she not started yet? Our comms are deplorable. Have been for years.

Guess they all know Pies fluked a flag they didn’t really deserve. Hence it’s little wonder they are where they are.

Trades the size of Petracca take months, sometimes a year to sort out. You are talking about not just a club finding currency to satisfy us, but also clearing $5,000,000 in salary cap space. Unless Trac’s management has been trying to arrange a trade for months on end, I can’t see how 14 days get it done.

It’s going to be a long year 😂

Well if that’s not a dime a dozen complaint heard across 18 clubs on a weekly basis, I don’t know what is… poor Jefferson being yelled at weekly by PF to get selected couldn’t have helped 😂

I want to know that too. Connor and co manage a hell of a lot of Melbourne players. I don’t know why they themselves would [censored] the club off by deliberately airing dirty laundry, when we’ve by and large always had a good relationship with them. We are known to be fair in our trade dealings. Maybe they think we will bend over if Trac carries on with this dummy spit? Remember his brother works there, so I’m not too sure how professional this whole thing truly is.

ANB asking for a trade has NOTHING to do with anything of this nature. Like absolutely nothing. Just FYI.

I’m in the same boat as you. I dislike the way he’s disengaged and letting Morris that weasel drive the story. It’s definitely not worthy of a leader of a club. You don’t spit the dummy in public like that. It’s very unnecessary and unprofessional and has rightly upset a lot of people. I note that today he liked Gawn’s shared post with the club about his contract extension, which is nice to see. Perhaps he needs to cool down before he says anything because he knows he can’t hide his emotions. He’s a good public speaker, but he doesn’t know how to fake it IMO. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He might also be holding out hope of a trade, so can’t say anything for fear it’ll come back to bite him. Either way, this unnecessary circus is not good for anyone, but after this weekend I think it’s looking worse for Trac’s brand than ours.

To be fair I think we should acknowledge the trauma he went thru. Thinking you’re going to die, having surgery without anesthesia, being in isolation, having complications and then also needing to have your appendix removed, is incredibly traumatic. And like Gus and Clarry, Trac has a lot of his identify tied up in football, so to have it taken away for such a long period of time would be very difficult. I hate the way he/his team have gone about this, but I also think that being alone with your thoughts is a dangerous thing sometimes. Feeling scared, weak, and vulnerable would heighten emotions, especially for someone already so emotional. And just as he might blow up quickly, he might also calm down quickly. I’m of middle eastern descent, I know a thing or two about being a hot head. Italians are the same. I think in time he will regret his handling of this situation, just as I’m sure the club has regrets of their own. There are definitely two sides to this and both would have valid arguments. In the end there are no winners if Trac insists on leaving. We all want to see our club succeeds and there’s no doubt Trac playing good footy for the MFC makes that more of a possibility.

I think being a 20 year long joke bring them down a notch personally

Isn’t it a shame that the filth traded their first round pick for Shultz 😁😁😁 Pies could never get a trade done, unless they’re willing to trade Nick Daicos.

Morris clearly has direct contact to either Trac or his team. I hate that smarmy misogynist, and there’s probably more to it, but the fact that he chose to discuss what appears to be very fixable problems, is interesting. Sounds like Trac and his team have realized there’s no chance a trade will happen, so they’re softening their positioning as to, in Morris’ words, not walk back with tail between the legs.

Really hope he announces his retirement early enough in the week so he can be honored on Friday night. Same goes for Tmac IF he chooses to retire, which I hope is not the case! Will the club also do something to say thanks to Nibbler?

Yeah seriously, what would the point of the move be? He spent years in a rock bottom Melbourne team, experienced success, and now he is walking out to return to the bottom? The likelihood of North winning a flag before he retires are close to zero. It would be a different story if a contender was chasing him, but I can’t see him leaving for an extra year or more money at this point in his career. Not with the strong connections and history he has to our club. He’s not just a bit player, he’s our VC and he’s got a family legacy here.

Surely this is not true. Also if Pert lives in Noosa, he should have been over to Trac’s place every night singing him a lullaby. Not letting resentment fester.

So basically, our poor communication has led to everyone spitting the dummy, Trac and teammates. Whoever is responsible for that needs to have their head on the chopping block. How could you let [censored] fester to the point where it explodes and you have a player of Trac’s quality wanting out? But as the panel says, the likelihood that any team has anything even remotely worthy to give us in a trade for Trac, especially a team he wants to play for, are close to 0. Looks like a long summer of building bridges and mending broken egos.

Wasn’t he there? @WalkingCivilWar was Hunter on the GC?

George is definitely going to be our new social media manager and going by Louie’s size, I reckon he will be lining up in the ruck as early as 2028. Now we just need a FF and a FB.

Thank you and all the DA members for all the amazing work that you do in supporting our club, no matter what.

He liked it too, just couldn’t fit it on the same screenshot

Yeah pretty deluded to think the club came to Max yesterday and were like “Max we need some good news, want to sign for 3 more years please?” I am sure this decision has been discussed between Max and Jess and the club for weeks if not months.