rufus

I'm still confused why we didn't frame the conversation with him around his role next season with the rider that "we're happy for you to look for a fresh start, but we're not paying any of your contract". I just can't see him not agreeing to tear up the contract and have a completely new one with GWS. I know his manager would have done everything he could to stop him from doing that, but would he have succeeded with this particular client? We could have always negotiated back from that position, but we seemed to start at the opposite end and now we're paying ridiculous money all the way to 2030. Such poor management.

Agreed (although I think the win total might be more like 8 to 14 over the next 2 seasons). The only silver lining to the complete balls up of our list management is that we now have noone to pay next season...so perhaps we can clear off a bunch of the Oliver and Brayshaw money so it doesn't linger to the end of the decade...

That was our leverage right there. Telling him he's coming back unless he can convince GCS he's worth swapping for BH.

Gee it's getting to be a tough sell to the supporters with how we're subsidising other teams' payrolls. Ironic that the guy in charge of overseeing these types of deals in the first place is now heavily involved in negotiating our next 5 years away. Understand the club want him gone for a variety of reasons, but given the ridiculous expectation on the salary subsidy I'd be telling him he's coming back, and re-iterate that if it isn't happening in the manner we'd expect of our highest paid player then yeah it will likely be at Casey. I honestly believe now that he'd prefer to tear up his contract and just sign a new one with GWS. That would be win/win. If he chooses to come back and play at Casey then surely any of our other players who think we've been too soft on him will see it as some kind of step forward. I also believe that he is going to get back to being a genuine gun in this league and our handling of him from just about every aspect over recent times is going to come out looking even worse than it does now. I am not absolving him of the responsibility he had to drive the MFC forward during his time, but we apparently knew who he was but still ended up in this position. If we do end up eating this poop sandwich then I can see us taking the stance with Petracca that it is Humphrey or you're coming back. It'll be a PR/membership nightmare if we swap Petracca and Oliver for picks 7&8 and are still paying them $700K per year to go play finals somewhere else.

No idea what is playing out behind the scenes, and also haven't seen enough of Humphrey to have much idea of how good he is. Personally reckon our best bet might be to go to the draft again and have another go at unearthing some guys who might drive us forward and be the ones to finally drive our player culture in the right direction. Having said that, if the powers that be at MFC genuinely think Humphrey can be that kind of difference maker, i'd be negotiating through Petracca. I'd sit him down and let him know he needs to convince GCS that he's going to provide them so much value that he is worth parting with Humphrey for. And if he can't convince them then they don't really value him anyway. Let him know as a contracted player who wants to break the contract, the onus is on him here (just like the onus is on us in the Oliver situation). He can stay at MFC otherwise (and yes I know if he stays he will give us nothing and personally I've wanted to move him on for a few years). We need to show some power here.

You're 100% right. When it comes to trading in this sport, people tend to forget exactly what the activity of trading objects is all about: if you want to acquire something you see as extremely valuable, you have to hand over something you see as extremely valuable.

If he were asking for a trade back to Vic, surely we'd have said to Gold Coast that if this request comes, you tell him it's MFC or nothing. Let them know if they agree to trade him somewhere else then Petracca is off the table. Surely we have some leverage there. Understand his preference may be another club, but we may need to be firm if these rumours are true.

Best Melbourne player I've seen. Sad that it is ending like this but understand why the club might want to go down a different path. However, the approach of the club has me stumped. Why did we push out a narrative that we'd pay 700k per year of his wages (we hate you so much we're willing to pay you a significant salary to go away???). Why not let him know he may be spending time in the VFL and let him explore options. I feel pretty confident he'd have agreed to a pay cut somewhere else to have the opportunity to keep playing high level footy. We might have had to chip in a bit (which is still a ludicrous notion to me) but it also would have given us some leverage to ask for something back in exchange. The only saving grace is that we have nobody else to pay next year. Can we clear 2 million of his wages next year or does it need to be fully spread out?

There's just no way with the list we're going to have that we win more than 5 games next year. You'd hope that behind closed doors that was the expectation that was set. End of the day, we have a history of players underperforming...if he can somehow get this group across the board to give max effort and perform to their level, then maybe it won't be a complete disaster. Watching a team perform to their level is fine...watching talented people constantly botch things under pressure is harder to watch (e.g. our last 4 years). I just have a really uneasy feeling about this regime right now. Even the potential assistants that are being spoken about are uninspiring.

Me too. Always rated him higher as a player and thought he was more committed to our club through his journey. If this has been done without any firm commitment from incoming players then it's a big red mark for the new regime for mine. We're looking at bottom 4 for 5+ years now...extraordinary just 4 years out from a flag with a young list. The fact that info had leaked before the meeting yesterday was an abomination. If the suggestion of us being willing to pay up to 700 of his wage is true then I have no words (surely you'd want to make sure if something might leak you'd put out a low number to start with???). Can you imagine him playing in preliminary finals and grand finals for Geel or Collingwood while we are helping them to the tune of 700k. Far out. I'd rather King have been prepared to back himself to get him back to his best than stomach that (although I guess its possible that behind the scenes there may be circumstances existing that mean removing him from the playing group is the only way we can really move forward). I do find it odd that the list manager who did the deal is also sitting in these meetings advising people that they can't be guaranteed senior footy a couple of years into the agreement. It's time to move on from that regime...it has failed miserably and is leading us from one calamity to another.

The way this club goes about things, both on and off the field, just beggars belief at times. I'm not convinced we are capable of being a serious football club. Why is this stuff playing out in the media in almost real time?

We should know the position of the club by the end of the day. If he is indeed fully on board and we are wanting him to be a central part of the regeneration then we will need to make a statement to shut the noise down. The club just doesn't need more of this stuff dragging through the media for weeks. If we don't get a statement then I'd assume it's true and we want him to move on, in which case we would really appear to be going full rebuild.

Fair enough that club wants established players to be part of any trade, but realistically it's not going to happen. No way we will convince any competitive person to come and spend their best years toiling with this group. The St Kilda debacle put a full stop on any thought of this group having a chance of making any noise down the track. I'm firmly of the belief we need high picks and try to turn the list over for a rise in 4 to 5 years. As a smaller club, like the other smaller clubs our shot is to sneak a flag when our young guns are in their low to mid 20s, before they start looking elsewhere. Maybe this could change one day if we manage to draft some players with the ability to change our player culture...but we haven't managed to do that for many years. People will be annoyed with Petracca, but his departure (providing the club hold very firm on the asking price) is going to be very good for us in a number of ways.

100%. Look how our season started this year when we focussed our off season on being more attacking...we just completely fell apart defensively. I'm still adamant that the biggest contributor to the result of any AFL match is pressure. Geelong beat Brisbane 3 weeks ago because their pressure was higher. Brisbane turned it around 80 points mostly because they brought the pressure and Geelong couldn't handle it. The challenge is convincing a group of 23 people of the benefit of sacrificing a bit to focus on the pressure element....not many teams can do it consistently. Loved Ashcroft's speech on the podium....celebrate for a bit and then straight back to work. What a great attitude.

Hopefully the stance of the club last year and this year is part of a turning of the tide league wide in terms of want away players under contract. The idea of us paying the wages of anyone who doesn't want to play for us is just ridiculous. The compromising needs to be done by the player and their target club. The player can forgo some money and the target club can sacrifice some talent in order to bring them in. Should never be an expectation of the club holding the contract.