Melbourne president Kate Roffey has gone missing – Mark Robinson says it’s time for her to speak up
It’s unfathomable that Christian Petracca or Jack Viney would have to answer questions about Melbourne’s culture when the club president won’t, writes Mark Robinson.
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She parachuted in and became the premiership president and now she’s a president under pressure.
Kate Roffey is also the president gone missing.
As her football club is being confronted with player behavioural issues and now explosive revelations about the early 2021 scenario planning for the sacking of coach Simon Goodwin, Roffey has chosen to stay quiet.
On Monday, requests via text and a phone call were ignored.
On Tuesday, the official line from Melbourne was “she can’t talk at this stage”.
Why not?
Understandably, Roffey can’t talk about Joel Smith’s positive cocaine test because a Sports Integrity Australia hearing is imminent and she can’t talk about Clayton Oliver because Oliver’s private health, as it should be, is a private matter.
And she’s being sued by former president Glen Bartlett, along with three other board members, so Bartlett’s off limits.
But what about the football club as a whole?
What about the culture of the joint?
You’d think Joel Smith’s parents would like some clarity about the environment?
You’d reckon all the parents would like some sort of visibility.
Is there a drug problem? Is Smith a one-off bloody idiot? Is there a fire, or just smoke?
Most importantly, what is the club doing to sort out this mess?
Demons fans should demand answers from the president, and not be satisfied with wishy-washy commentary from skipper Max Gawn at a paid-for sponsorship gig beside a basketball court last Saturday afternoon.
Max got tossed the hot potato. He shouldn’t have been.
Who’s the next Melbourne player to pop his head up? It’s unfathomable that Petracca, or Viney, or Brayshaw, for example, would have to answer questions about the club’s culture and what steps are being taken to address it, when the president won’t.
Leadership when the sun is shining is easy, real leadership comes when fog rolls in.
Roffey is lost in the fog.
If this was politics, and not football, the government would’ve had a spokesman up at 7am on Saturday.
Letters to members don’t cut it, either. They are a fluffy community leaflet. Roffey needs to answer questions. She needs to inform Melbourne members and fans about what the club has identified as issues and how it is going to rectify them.
Revelations that she was in a board meeting which discussed “scenarios if Simon Goodwin cannot cope or if the board does have to move on Simon Goodwin’’ places her in a delicate position.
Roffey has since scoffed at claims Goodwin’s future was ever in question.
That is hard to fathom after reading the board minutes.
Now, what Melbourne members and fans want is the truth about their footy club.
As president, Roffey needs to stand up and lead.
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