Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin says everyone at the Demons is trying get a “deeper level of understanding” about what frustrated star Christian Petracca is going through as he again made it clear the injured Norm Smith medallist would play out the final five years of his contract at the club.
Petracca addressed teammates on Monday about the devastating injuries he suffered in the King’s Birthday game in June in what Goodwin said was a “really important” step towards becoming happier in the club environment.
The explosive midfielder-forward has been publicly silent on his future as reports have swirled that he would be open to a trade.
Goodwin did not say whether Petracca had told teammates he would remain at the club in the meeting but said its main purpose was for the Demons to gain a greater understanding of his injury ordeal, which included a ruptured spleen, a punctured lung and broken ribs.
“We can communicate all we like about what Christian’s had to go through from a trauma perspective away from the game, but I think when people hear it from Christian, it means so much more,” Goodwin said.
“It’s a really important process to go through – to get a greater understanding of what people are going through and how they’ve suffered and the trauma that they’ve had to deal with.
“What I can see in Christian in the last few days is there’s a huge smile that’s coming back onto his face and it’s great to have him back around our playing group.”
Goodwin did not answer directly when asked if Petracca had discussed his future at the meeting but said he would remain at the club and he was “really confident” the 28-year-old could do a full pre-season training program.
“Christian’s going to be at this footy club for the next five years. He’s got five years to go on his contract and he’s going to be a part of the red and blue,” Goodwin said.
“Part of this process is to give a deeper level of understanding of what he’s gone through and then to move forward together as one – and we will.
“He’s on a limited program at the moment, but as the off-season unfolds, we’ll certainly be in a position to start to build him up to a place by the time he returns that he’ll be available to do a full pre-season.”
Goodwin said Jack Viney was “very close” to signing a contract extension and North Melbourne counterpart Alastair Clarkson’s public expression of interest in the Demons vice-captain was “something I wouldn’t do”.
“But every coach is a little bit different in that space, and I think what it shows is the respect that people have for Jack Viney and the type of player and person that he is,” he said.
“You’ll never see someone more passionate about a footy club than Jack Viney, so we’re confident that something’s coming pretty soon.
“He’s still got a year to go (on his current contract), and we’ll make sure that he’s a Dee for life. We want to have Jack Viney at our footy club for his whole career.”
Friday night’s clash against Collingwood at the MCG will be a final game in red and blue for Alex Neal-Bullen as he prepares for a trade home to South Australia, but Goodwin said retiring premiership forward Ben Brown would not play.
“There’s not much left in that knee, but we’ll certainly honour Browny in some form at the game, and we’d love all our supporters to get down there to honour someone who’s been a premiership player and contributed so much in such a short amount of time at our footy club,” he said.
Goodwin said veteran defender Steven May was a chance to return from broken ribs, but the club had not decided yet if he would be risked in the dead-rubber clash.
Source Agencies
