spirit of norm smith

MFC April 2021 MELBOURNE has secured its most prized signature yet, with superstar midfielder Christian Petracca agreeing to a mammoth seven-year deal. The Demons officially announced the re-signing of Petracca on Wednesday, securing the Brownlow Medal favourite's future with the club until at least the end of the 2029 season. It takes Petracca out of the free agency picture next year and follows reports strongly linking the supremely talented 25-year-old with a potential future move to Collingwood. "Christian will now be a Melbourne player for life and our members and supporters can look forward to cheering him on through what we are sure will be the best years of his career," the club's list boss, Tim Lamb, said. "Over the past couple of seasons, Christian has established himself as one of the competition's elite players and we are confident his best is still to come. "To turn his back on free agency, and what would have undoubtedly been significant offers from other clubs, is a testament to his character and shows how much he loves this club, his teammates, coaches and the environment we have worked so hard to create. "It is an exciting time to be a part of the club and Christian has been unwavering in his commitment to being part of the journey we are on. "He is focused on helping lead us to where we want to get to, and we can’t wait to see what he can produce in the red and blue for many more years to come."

@Whispering_Jack wheres that from ? Shows there’s still reasonable amount of good young players in the pool. Obviously no phantom draft is worthwhile until after trades have been closed out.

Did the Dees bid on Mills? I think we thought he was a slight chance. But the AFL and the Swans knew his talent

Not sure the Dees have the bargaining power or attraction to bring in quality players. Culture? Contract certainty?? Casey travel time ???? I’d not be attracted to our side of the fence right now

The Tim Lamb resume … 2021 IN Dunstan❌ 2022 IN Grundy ❌Hunter❌ Schache ❌OUT Toby Bedford, Jayden Hunt, Luke Jackson, Sam Weideman 2023 IN Billings ❌McAdam ⭕️ Fullarton❌ OUT Harmes Jordon Grundy 2024 In Sharp⭕️Campbell ⭕️OUT Neale-Bullen And he’s still employed ?!?!??!?

💔💔💔💔Dees tell Oliver to accept a change of role and he’s not guaranteed a place in the starting line up in 2026. Crazy!! Not sure about the “inside the four walls” knowledge. Is it salary cap? Is it off field issues? Is it the thinking that he won’t ever be able to deliver the footy ? Any or all could be right. It’s another ugly unsettling off season like the end of 2025. We were horrible on field in 2025. Sure close losses but we also had a near full list in terms of players available. The King has arrived and is set to disrupt the list. It’s a tough one, seeing our champions and premiership stars like Trac, Clarry and May told it’s ok to ho elsewhere. Love to keep you but perhaps you’re better off finding a new home. That hurts. We signed them to long term contracts and celebrated it with media release glorification. Now we are seemingly tearing them up and being the gutless party that’s throwing them out and not willing to fulfill the contracts. MFC signed the contracts. What is that telling us about our internal culture? And the media leaks. Ffs!!! Tom Morris must have the rooms bugged. It’s embarrassing. Dees members and supporters are resilient. We are and have to be!! But again this is testing us !!!!!!

[censored] the media They love the airport chase interview [censored] them all And they want to destroy MFC and we give them the ammunition to do so !!

Dees in 2026

Dees list management

Heard on good source that For over a year, Dees say yes yes yes Last week, Dees now say no no no We are a joke !!! Who would want to join this circus anyway.

He knows we are screwed !!

It’s a mess King has come in and delivered his message

❌more leaks. Leaks. Leaks. Leaks. Has Tom Morris got our offices bugged ❌blow the place up … we took nearly 7 years for Roos and Jackson and JT to build the list. Now we are self destruct mode and ❌in a low quality draft, the Dees are pushing to off load players and potentially get picks where they get pushed back ❓❓salary cap issues ❓❓wtf we have cleared the decks and added zero players in the last 3 years of any SC substance ❓❓memories here of clearing the decks and pushing out popular players like James McDonald. It took us years to recover and be competitive. ❌our membership numbers are in the toilet and going backwards as others push up !!?! wtf this won’t help ❌Tim Lamb has failed across 3 x years of trading. Only saved by JT drafting ❌remember Mark Neeld. Talked tough. Was the “best assistant going around”. We will break eggs he said too. And he lasted 18 months. ❌without Trac and Clarry, we will be bottom 3 next year. Only Tigers and Eagles to battle with Ok I’m frustrated and angry and gutted by our fuccccj ups!!!

@Mt. Dee-Maaan agree. It toooo early!

Tim Lamb and Alan Richardson.

Potential trade deals so far are way unders!!! We need a very good player PLUS a round 1 draft pick, which is under pick 14. Petracca has 4 more years under contract. 2nd in MFC 2025 best and fairest, polled 16 votes in this years Brownlow, he’s a 4-time All-Australian, 2xMFC best and fairest, a premiership player and won Norm Smith Medal.

Potential trade deals so far are way unders!!! We need a very good player PLUS a round 1 draft pick, which is under pick 14. Petracca has 4 more years under contract. 2nd in MFC 2025 best and fairest, polled 16 votes in this years Brownlow, he’s a 4-time All-Australian, 2xMFC best and fairest, a premiership player and won Norm Smith Medal.

Crows say : We don't want to give you any senior players, but we want Petracca. Dees: Petrecca has 4 more years under contract. Petracca was second in the 2025 best and fairest, polled 16 votes in this years Brownlow, he’s a four-time All-Australian, twice MFC best and fairest, and a Norm Smith Medal winner. Yes he is a premiership player. Crows : You can have Pedlar, who doesn't play, and pick 14 - that's fair. Dees: that’s a joke … you’re joking right!!!

Unfortunately live pick 6 may be too late to get Robey (given the Academy and father son picks) Say that MFC got 6 and Flanders for a trade deal with Suns to get Petracca and 23. Robey. Lindsay. Grlj. They would be the targets. Skilled players. That’s the need!!

Tim Lamb. Time to stand up. Crows want Petracca …

Crows say : We don't want to give you any senior players, but we want Petracca. Dees: Petrecca has 4 more years under contract. Petracca was second in the 2025 best and fairest, polled 16 votes in this years Brownlow, he’s a four-time All-Australian, twice MFC best and fairest, and a Norm Smith Medal winner. Yes he is a premiership player. Crows : You can have Pedlar, who doesn't play, and pick 14 - that's fair. Dees: that’s a joke … you’re joking right!!!

@tim lamb. Ok well spoken. Agree disappointing to have McVee bail out. Seems like to most likely deals are Mihocek from the Pies as a free agent Heath from the Saints for say a 3rd round pick (might depend on whether Marshall leaves the Saints) 24, 53, 59 Likely Freo 29 to Dees for McVee Likely Dees trade 29 to Saints for Heath & 43 Dees take 24 (32) & 43 (57) to the draft

Paul Guerra MELBOURNE CEO Paul Guerra says the club was "surprised" when star Christian Petracca officially informed them of his desire to play elsewhere in 2026. Guerra said the Demons would hold Petracca to his monster contract if they weren't offered a deal good enough to 'turn their head'. "We were surprised to say the least, but it is what it is," Guerra said. In an ideal world Christian stays with us, but ultimately it's his call to explore other options. He believes he needs a fresh start so our view is let's see what comes back from that. "He has a four-year contract with the football club so if we don't get a deal that satisfies us, Christian will be playing as a Melbourne footballer next year Ultimately, it's up to Christian and his team now to come forward with a deal that will satisfy us. "We know what we've got and that's a quality footballer that has a four-year contract. For Christian to leave the football club, it has to be a deal that turns our head. "He's a generational player for our club, premiership player, Norm Smith Medallist, second in our best and fairest this year, so it's going to have to be something pretty good. "We'll do the right thing by the football club and if Christian comes back next year, great. If we've got a suitable trade that we've done, that's also great."

Billings or Freijah is the question. We went with a player who couldn’t get a game in a lowly club and didn’t give ourselves the chance for a pick 45 gold !!