Melbourne president Kate Roffey admits to Christian Petracca’s disgruntlement with the club

Melbourne president Kate Roffey admits disgruntled star Christian Petracca has confronted the club with serious issues, but she insists the broken relationship is “absolutely” salvageable.

Roffey has given a rare interview as the club continues to navigate its way through a culture crisis, a potential player exodus and the highly publicised frustrations of Petracca.

Petracca is yet to deny constant reporting that he is bitter with the club over its handling of his life-threatening spleen injury and wants to get out, despite five years remaining on a lucrative contract to stay.

The 28-year-old has struggled with his mental health since suffering the traumatic injury when he copped an errant knee in Melbourne’s clash with Collingwood on King’s Birthday.

In addition to the lacerated spleen he suffered four broken ribs and a punctured lung, and spent nearly a week in ICU after undergoing emergency surgery.

It’s understood Petracca desperately wants to find a way to move to a rival Victorian club, but knows heaven and earth would need to be moved to satisfy the Demons in a trade.

But Roffey denies it has created a “stand-off” between player and club.

“I don’t think it is a stand-off, and that’s a media portrayal of it,” she said on SEN on Thursday morning.

“We love ‘Trac’, and we have been working with him.

“He has raised some issues at the club, and some of them are very good issues. We have taken them on board and we have discussed them and spoken about them.

“We are not in the position where we are having a stand-off with Trac.

“I just want to point out to people — and I think this sort of gets lost in the media world, because we’re dealing with the people, and when you’re looking at it in the media, you’re not actually seeing the person — this is an incredibly difficult time for Trac.

“I have been in intensive care, I’m very unfortunate to say, myself. It is horrific, it is a traumatic experience.

“What he has been through is significantly traumatic, and now what’s playing out in the media is very difficult for him.

“We’ve got our arms around him. We’re not sitting there not talking to him, and we’re not sitting there not helping him find a way through this. We’re sitting there working with him to find a way through this.

“It’s not a stand-off, certainly not from our point of view. We’re listening, we’re working together. We’re going to have him here and we’re going to keep working with him to make sure we get the best Trac out on the field.”

Petracca’s family has been particularly angry with the club through this whole process, but Roffey said she hasn’t spoken to them.

“I haven’t spoke directly to Trac’s family for a while, so I won’t comment on that because I don’t have any direct insights into it,” she said.

“I haven’t seen them for a while, Trac hasn’t been playing, they’re usually at games when we see them, so I can’t comment more specifically on that.”

Pressed on whether Petracca has specifically asked to be traded, Roffey wouldn’t be drawn.

“I haven’t spoken directly to him about that, so again, I’m not going to comment on the media issues. He’s a contracted player at our club,” she insisted.

“We will find a resolution to this.

“I’m not commenting on anything about what his wishes are or are not because I haven’t had that direct conversation. Those conversations are being had, as is appropriate, with the football department, not me. That’s not my area of expertise.

“What I am saying is that Trac is a contracted player, Trac is a player that we love, he’s a critical part of our team, and we’re working to make sure we get back out there next year with Trac on the park in the best condition that he can be.”

But she admitted that Petracca is upset with how the club has handled his recovery, and says she doesn’t have a clear grasp of where the club has failed him.

“No, I don’t actually,” Roffey said.

“We’re very happy to work through that with him, and we’re chatting with him and talking to him every day, and working through that. That’s where we’re sitting as a club, and we’re absolutely willing to work through that, and I haven’t had any conversation that indicates anything to the contrary.

“When you’re in intensive care, you can’t pop in and visit. Like I said, I’ve been in there — you get one person to who’s allowed to come in.

“In terms of the medical care, you go into the system as a patient of the Victorian health system.

“So, we’re not in direct contact with him for medical care at that point in time, that’s happening through his doctors. So, we have to find out further down the line what’s happening, what’s required of us, what we have to do.

“So, I’m not sure, again, as I say, in the media, a lot of this rhetoric around ‘not enough was done’.

“We need to actually sit down and ask, ‘What wasn’t done? What would you have liked us to have done? If we didn’t do enough, we can work through that and apologise, but I’m not entirely sure — I don’t believe it relates to medical care.”

Gerard Whateley took exception to Roffey’s constant suggestions that the issue was a “media construct”.

“This has been building for months with Christian. It feels like you’re deflecting this as a media construct, rather than a reflection of truth. The issues between Christian and Melbourne aren’t a media invention,” Whateley said.

Roffey denied that she ever said that.

“Nobody’s saying that,” she said.

“When I have the right level of information, I’m always happy to come and speak on radio and TV and talk to the media. No one’s saying this is a media invention.

“What I’m saying is that the bits in the media are not the full story, it never is. And we’re actually trying to get to the bottom of the issues here and actually work through them and resolve them with Christian.

“I’m not saying we’ll sit down when the time is right — we have been sitting down with him during this. People, players, coaches, leadership group have all been sitting with him.

“There’s been constant communication that’s been going on for months.”

Speaking more broadly about the culture at the club and whether or not it is in crisis, Roffey said: “Is there ever a club that’s not in some kind of flux state? We’re working through it, we’re dealing with it.

“On-field, that’s been spoken about by others much more knowledgeable people than me. We had some good games and then we had some not so good games.

“Off the field, we’ve had over the last year some very difficult media issues. We have to just continue to work through these issues, and we do.

“We’ve got some issues, I think that’s clear to everyone. I think it would be silly to sit there and say that we don’t.

“I do really feel for our supporters, I’m heartbroken for our supporters, because they don’t get to see what I get to, which is the day-to-day operations in at the club and what the people are like.

“I get to speak to the parents and say, ‘Are you happy?’ Because if the parents are happy, their kids are happy. If the kids are happy, they’re here playing good footy at our club. One parent of one of our young players, who has re-signed, his mum said, ‘He loves the club, we love the club, he’s yours, you keep him. You look after him well, we know you do’.

“That’s where we get the feel of what’s actually happening, and I get exposed to that. I know a lot of members and supporters don’t; they get exposed to a lot of the negative things that pop up in the media.”

It all comes as star small forward Kysaiah Pickett has expressed his home sickness to the club, with family links in South Australia and Western Australia.

Pickett did sign a four-year deal to remain at the Demons until the end of 2027 just last April and, as a contracted player, any decision to trade Pickett would be at Melbourne’s discretion.

Pickett and his partner welcomed their first child into the world earlier this year.

But Roffey said moving clubs is “not even a consideration from his management”.

“He is homesick, they all get homesick from time to time. He’s got a new baby,” she said.

“We work through that with Kozzy, he’s often going home with his family.”

Pickett’s issues are not considered to be linked to the ongoing cultural questions surrounding the Demons.

Alex Neal-Bullen has already requested a trade to Adelaide.