When it comes to the Melbourne Football Club one is hard-pressed to not think about the old adage, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
What the hell is going on at MFC?
It seems like one bizarre thing after another at Melbourne, the most recent of which is Steven May’s rant at a club function, when he was recognised as coming in fifth position in the best and fairest contest.
(Christian Petraca won with 602 votes, nearest was Jack Viney on 527. May tallied 451.)
When interviewed, May said: “We lose to Collingwood and they go onto win the flag. And it fucking hurts, because we’re a better team than them. We should have smoked them…our team is so much better than [them]…”
Steven May at the MFC best and fairest after finishing in 5th place pic.twitter.com/r73DaFYLOv
— Lace out (@laceoutofficial) October 8, 2023
May prefaced his speech saying he might have drank more than advisable for someone being interviewed. But implying he’s surprised by his top 5 finish is odd considering he’s been in that position more times than not since he arrived at the club in 2019.
In any case, while being mildly intoxicated might have excused his swearing, it doesn’t excuse his unsportsmanlike, obnoxious attitude. Especially when we’re talking about the same Steven May who last year, while intoxicated (despite concussion protocols) caused teammate Jake Melksham to punch him in defence outside a Prahran restaurant.
While it was refuted by the club that May goaded Melksham for not playing in the 2021 premiership, it’s clear that May’s behaviour was exceptionally poor that evening and he did make hurtful remarks.
We all make mistakes. But what sort of culture endures at the Melbourne Football club that allows May to a short few years later make a half-drunken, expletive-filled rant claiming that Melbourne is “much better” than the ultimate winners Collingwood – who prevailed in what’s been described by pundits including Jake Niall and Kane Cornes as one of the greatest in the modern era, if not ever.
The Clayton Oliver Circus
The other new circus act at Melbourne has been the Clayton Oliver saga, in which he’s publicly fallen out of favour with club officials. Why? Well to the average fan it’s not clear, but it doesn’t take a great deal of reading between the lines of recent media reports to get the idea.
Here at Just Might Online Magazine, we read that as at least excessive partying, and more than likely illicit drug use. Very rarely would you hear a club talk about one of their best players in such a critical way, so it’s fair to assume they’re addressing issues on the upper end of the spectrum.
Just a day or two ago Oliver addressed the rumours exclusively to channel 7. Although Channel 7 described his comments as a categorical denial, what aired in this clip seems a little less emphatic and a little more circumspect.
Where to from here?
Former AFL coach Grant Thomas has criticised the team’s apparent hypocrisy in asking players to meet the rigorous physical and social standards expected of AFL players (and coaches), whilst seeming to make great accommodations for star members the likes of coach Simon Goodwin and Clayton Oliver.
Interesting how we unfortunately hear about Clayton Oliver’s off-field trials and tribulations. Now part of his rehab program is to move into Captain Gawns house. I can only assume the coach had been living at Gawns as well then?🤔 Fish rots at the head. Pretty difficult putting…
— Grant Thomas (@Thomo_Grant) October 7, 2023
So much so that they’ve had needed club captain Max Gawn to come to the rescue, in Goodwin’s case going on the PR trail to defend the coach from allegations of drinking, gambling and workplace bullying. And with Oliver, bringing him to live in his family home.
While Gawn is no doubt a titan of a leader on and off the field, even for him – not to mention his child and expecting wife – this type of burden is surely too much, and ultimately unhealthy in a cultural sense: the Melbourne Football Club is not a camp for troublesome 17-year-olds and Max Gawn isn’t Mr Miyagi from Karate Kid.
What the club needs now is to identify what is causing the “rot” as Thomas refers to it, and address it systemically. Trying to iron out the many kinks that continue to rear up is clearly not an effective approach when you consider the on and off-field troubles the Demons have had in 2023.
(Lead image: By Flickerd – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82950680)
