Petracca drama highlights the lack of empathy and care in light of life-threatening and life-altering trauma

The Christian Petracca scenario is the headline act in football right now.

What was illustrated in the Kate Roffey interview this week was the lack of empathy and care in light of life-threatening and life-altering trauma.

You could deduce that in the aftermath of the King’s Birthday injury Melbourne and the AFL had a principle objective of clear the medical process - which looked awful to all those watching - and protect from future litigation.

In those first few days those who might have, forgotten to care for Petracca and his distressed family 

They actively tried to create a picture that everything was fine… publicly documented statements from both the club and the league that Petracca was in good spirits and recovering well… when in fact he was in a critical condition in ICU and family members thought he might die.

When you get that so wrong it leaves scars.

The injury happened on June 10, in the 12 weeks since, Petracca has on more than one occasion expressed this disappointment to the club yet we had the President concede she hasn’t spoken with the family and has had scant contact with Petracca himself.

That’s the lack of care and empathy at the heart of this scenario… and if you apply a shred of humanity that’s not hard to understand

The second element is the question of brand.

Petracca’s football brand is dedication and excellence, he’s the player that goes the extra mile in preparation to set and lift the standards.

Overseas training camps… an unrelenting pursuit to be the best. He is driven to succeed and was a key force propelling Melbourne to a premiership as the Norm Smith Medalist.

And this is a club that hasn’t lived and matched those standards, there’s a full suite of documented instances that reveal serious shortcomings in the culture at the club but the administration has maintained a pretence that all is fine – not only fine but the absolute best - that was never true.

It rang hallow in the locker room… and the leadership group had communicated that to those in charge, but rather than addressing the problems and the concerns, they were ignored or excused and progressively Melbourne became the dysfunctional family of the League.

You only get one career and Melbourne didn’t do all they should have to maximise the opportunity for an era of success.

Any fair and objective assessment would reach that conclusion, so that’s the frustration.

You have the trauma of a major life-threatening injury on top of long-term frustration that the club has failed to adequately address the issues that have been raised.

Again that’s not hard to understand.

And as for Brand Petracca… that’s cooking. That’s the side project and business a clever and passionate man has built to give himself something outside of and beyond footy.

He’s on record as saying it is removed from footy and will never compromise the priority of footy, it’s reasonable to ask why it’s being used against him now.

We’ve asked footballers to be wholistic and then used it against a player who has done it better than most.

The last element is whether Petracca only wants to be traded to a big Victorian club, that has him depicted as a mercenary and it’s pretty obvious to see why that has been leaked into the atmosphere.

The truth of it stands to be answered and I’m not sure that’s the reality.