THE PHOTO, from 2008, resurfaced in AFL Grand Final week 2021, and was re-published by seemingly every major media outlet.
Two very young kids, clearly mates. Cheeky faces beaming in beautiful smiles, celebrating success for Victoria in the under-12 national championships.
The same two kids, 13 years later, that week ripped apart the AFL Grand Final, Christian Petracca winning the Norm Smith Medal and Clayton Oliver arguably the second-best player in Melbourne’s mauling of the Western Bulldogs.
Life was great for players and club. On the same night at Perth’s Optus Stadium, a 57-year Demons’ premiership drought had been broken, and a premiership dynasty was forecast.
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Since that glorious night, Melbourne has failed to win a final and has become an off-field embarrassment. For myriad reasons, the smiles have disappeared.
That both Petracca, contracted to the Demons to the end of 2029 and Oliver, contracted to end of 2030, have sought exits in the past two months says everything that needs to be said about the three-year implosion of the Melbourne Football Club.
There is seemingly no end to the lies and half-truths being told privately and publicly at Melbourne. The latest came on Monday from list manager Tim Lamb, when he was forced to respond publicly to Oliver's interest in moving to Geelong after CEO Gary Pert became open to the superstar midfielder being traded out.
“When there is some noise around a player, that can be a bit of an unsettling experience, and he obviously then took the opportunity to have one meeting,” said Lamb at the beginning of the 2024 Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period.
“But if a player has a meeting that doesn’t mean that they actually want to leave, like it happens all the time, it’s really common. Clayton’s fully aware he will be playing for us, he is happy with that, we look forward to next year.”
It doesn’t happen all the time, Tim, and no, it’s not common, particularly with well-run clubs and players contractually locked away for another six seasons.
This is not a knock on Lamb, as I felt for him in that moment, and in previous times during the past two months. His club effectively had forced him to lie on that occasion. Prior to that, Petracca’s standoff and threat to leave derailed his carefully planned project to land Dan Houston from Port Adelaide. He was also forced to deal with input from the board, which wanted a "feelgood" story after the Petracca mess, in re-contracting former captain Jack Viney through to the end of 2028.
There are so many people, including Petracca, Oliver, Pert and the board (which is now operating under an interim chair in Brad Green) running personal agendas at Melbourne that there is no end to the mess.
All have their own self-validated reasons for going rogue, but until someone takes proper control, the club will continue to be laughed at by outsiders.
The 2021 premiership was followed by 10 wins to open the 2022 season. Do the maths. Seven wins to close 2021, 10 to start 2022, 17 wins in a row. The dynasty that had been forecast was in play.
But then a series of setbacks hit operations. Teammates inexplicably punched-on in a street in Prahran. Former president Glen Bartlett launched legal action against Demons directors. Oliver’s many problems became so public and so problematic that the Demons shopped him around at the end of 2023. Joel Smith was detected by Sports Integrity Australia to have had cocaine in his system during a game, and subsequently alleged by SIA to have attempted to traffick cocaine. Angus Brayshaw was forced to retire for medical reasons. Coach Simon Goodwin was asked on SEN radio about rumours he had used illicit drugs at a gathering with players. “I do not use illicit drugs,” he said. In the same radio interview, Goodwin and Pert used the words “culture”, “cultural” and “culturally” in a sickeningly positive manner on 37 occasions. Petracca wanted to join Collingwood before re-committing after demanding change. President Kate Roffey stood down.
There have been no smiles at Melbourne for a very long time. Only disappointment, in-fighting, and most damningly, hurt. Someone needs to take control of this mess, and in my eyes, Gary Pert, the CEO since 2018, needs to be removed in order to begin that process.