Melbourne president Kate Roffey seems to have no more knowledge about the Christian Petracca controversy than much of the AFL public.
In a 19-minute interview with commentator Gerard Whateley onย SEN,ย the Petracca situation was the main topic in a broader discussion about the ongoing crisis that the Melbourne Football Club are dealing with.
Despite Petracca's well-documented desire to leave the club, which had built up over multiple months since his traumatising internal injury suffered in the Queens Birthday clash against Collingwood, the Melbourne president has essentially admitted she is in the dark and hasn't had any meaningful discussions with her star player or those close to him.
Asked whether Petracca wants to leave, whether the club handled his injury adequately and whether she knows why the 28-year-old believes he has been mistreated, her responses were consistent.
"I haven't spoken directly to him about that," she said.
"I'm not commenting on anything about what his wishes are or are not, because I haven't had that direct conversation.
"I haven't spoken directly to Trac's family for a while, so I won't comment on that because I don't have any direct insight into it. I haven't seen them for a while.
"I've read some bits and pieces about this in the media. I have no idea where that information came from."
Despite her lack of knowledge, Roffey was confident enough to declare that labelling the situation between Petracca and the club as a "standoff", is simply a "media portrayal."
While Petracca's issues seem to be multi-faceted, much of the discussion has revolved around the lack of support he received during his stint in hospital, which was reportedly life-threatening.
The Melbourne president faintly refuted this claim, citing her own stint in intensive care.
"When you're in intensive care, you can't pop in and visit," Roffey said.
"(There's) a lot of this rhetoric around 'not enough was done'. We need to actually sit down and go: 'What wasn't done... if we didn't do enough, we can work through that and apologise, but I'm not entirely sure what the- I don't believe it relates to medical care. That's probably all I can comment on."
The Melbourne president couldn't even share when she will chat to the Norm Smith medallist, but still believes that the situation is salvageable enough that the superstar will lineup in a Demon guernsey come 2025.
"There's a process to go through... they're just doing player exit interviews and that's where these issues have been raised," she said.
"Anytime he wants to talk to me, anytime he wants me to come to a meeting, very very happy to do so."
The narrative surrounding Melbourne having their head in the sand grows by the day and may have been amplified by the presidents' comments.
Rather than addressing the public concerns head-on, the club routinely deflect the discussion of their issues by either kicking the can further down the road or changing the point of discussion entirely.
Asked blatantly whether Gary Pert's preseason claim of having "the best culture in 40 years" was wrong, Roffey did not have a straightforward answer:
"Culture's always an interesting thing... it means different things to different people," she stated.
"What I look for in culture is how we treat our people when things go wrong.
"My only job as president is to make sure hopefully that our players leave the club as better people."
Asked whether the club has reached the point of crisis, she answered: "Is there ever a club that's not in some kind of flux?"
"We're talking, we're working together, we're dealing with it."
Asked whether the club should be more transparent with it's members, she responded: "We speak when we need to speak and we speak sensibly when we speak."
In closing the interview, Roffey denied the need for an independent review at the club.
"We've been constantly working on all sorts of things throughout the year. We recently had one of the All Black's coaching staff over spending time in the footy department giving us some feedback."
The Melbourne crisis will likely be amplified by the fallout from this interview, as the eyes of the footy world remain peeled to see the club's next move surrounding their disgruntled superstar over the coming days or weeks.
The biggest trade in AFL history will likely take place this off-season, and pressure is mounting on Melbourne to get it right.
