“I could hear him crying”: Demons president reveals “emotional” phone call during tumultuous off-season

Melbourne president Brad Green has revealed the heart-to-heart conversation he and star midfielder Clayton Oliver held over the phone at the close of another tumultuous trade period.

Melbourne have been at the forefront of off-field drama since Oliver's wild trade rumours to Adelaide in 2023 arose after feeling disgruntled with the way his injuries had been handled during that season.

Additionally, behavioural issues and injuries impacted the star midfielder's pre-season and set the wheels in motion for an out-of-form year where Oliver recorded his worst numbers since his debut season.

The Demons' public relations headache worsened when Christian Petracca reportedly began exploring a move out of the club after the handling of his own injuries, injuries significantly worse than Oliver's, as Petracca faced life-threatening spleen damage and surgery without anesthesia, yet was permitted to return to the field on the day he suffered such wounds.

All this dissension coupled with the four-year suspension of Joel Smith for testing positive to cocaine on gameday in 2023.

However, Melbourne assured that both Petracca and Oliver would be held to their contracts and be back in red and blue in 2025.

Three days after Oliver had taken the speculative situation into his own hands in last year's trade period, and met with Geelong to discuss a move down the highway, Green decided enough was enough and gave Oliver a call.

“It was during the trade period and I said, ‘Claz, I want to tell you what I'm going to say tonight at the best-and-fairest,” Green said to the Herald Sun.

“I said to him, ‘I'm going to say that the starting four at our first centre bounce next year will be Clayton Oliver, Christian Petracca, Max Gawn and Jack Viney'.

“Straight away, he got emotional. I could hear him crying.

“He said, ‘Don't do that'. And I said, ‘Why?'.

"He said: ‘It is B&F night and it is about the award-winners, I don't want you to speak about me'.

"And I said, ‘What I want to tell you right now Clarry is that I love you, I love you being part of this club, and you are going to be an all-time great.

“I said you will be in the hall of fame, and you are not going anywhere, and that is OK.

“And he said back, ‘I love you, Greeny', and that was it. He was happy.”

In the 2024/25 pre-season, Oliver's physical shape has taken a turn for the better, improving on the track better in a sign that the issues have settled at the Demons.

Similarly, Green made a call to Petracca after word spread of the 29-year-old assessing his future.

“Basically I called him up and said ‘Let's go and have a coffee'. I said ‘What can we do'? (and) ‘What is going on'?” Green said.

"And from that, as a board, we had to take a look at ourselves. So we did a board review, and things that arose from that we said ‘Let's do it, let's fix it'.

“And then from a football point of view, it was like right ‘Let's have a look at that'."

While enduring another rib knock this pre-season, Petracca will make his long-awaited return from the King's Birthday injuries in the trial match against Fremantle this Sunday.

Oliver will too return after missing the last few weeks of the 2024 season with a knee injury and fractured ribs. An unscathed run will set both players up for their official home and away return too, a Round 1 clash against the Giants at the MCG.