Melbourne president Brad Green could hear Clayton Oliver crying down the phone line.

The superstar Melbourne midfielder felt betrayed by the Demons after he was dangled as trade bait to Adelaide.

But three days after Oliver took matters into his own hands and met with Geelong, Green was ready to draw a big thick line on a disastrous three months and rang the jet onballer on the night of the Demons’ best and fairest.

The club was taking its fair share of responsibility for his form and fitness failures in 2024 and, under no circumstances would consider trading him, Green said into the phone.

Then came the tears.

“It was during the trade period and I said, ‘Claz, I want to tell you what I’m going to say tonight at the best-and-fairest,” Green said.

“I said to him, ‘I’m going to say that the starting-four at our first centre bounce next year will be Clayton Oliver, Christian Petracca, Max Gawn and Jack Viney’.

“Straight away, he got emotional. I could hear him crying.

“He said, ‘Don’t do that’. And I said, ‘Why?’. He said ‘It is B&F night and it is about the award-winners, I don’t want you to speak about me’.

“I said you will be in the hall of fame, and you are not going anywhere, and that is OK.

“And he said back, ‘I love you, Greeny’, and that was it. He was happy.”

Melbourne had been a mess to this point, but as new president, Green was the man in the background trying to repair the damage that threatened to rip the club apart.

It included Joel Smith’s suspension for a positive drug test on match day, but based on hair-testing results the club has received from the AFL, the Demons don’t believe they have an illicit drug problem.

But they weren’t perfect, either.

And on King’s Birthday, another controversial domino would fall when Petracca went pale grey on the field and staggered around for 20 minutes after a bump broke four of his ribs and ruptured his spleen and lung. Petracca told the doctor he was right to play on, but Collingwood players urged the superstar midfielder to leave the field as he looked so unwell.

Underneath the stadium at halftime there was a problem. Normal process wasn’t followed and the ground match manager wasn’t alerted to the critical medical issue, which could have released an ambulance quicker for the Norm Smith medallist.

Instead, Petracca waited, and then got taken to the Epworth Hospital instead of the Alfred.

When he eventually got there, his life-threatening injuries were discovered, requiring emergency surgery.

It hit the whole Petracca family hard. The debacle prompted a league-wide review, not necessarily of Melbourne’s medical practices, but a competition-wide assessment of emergency situations and requirements at AFL venues.

While Petracca recuperated in Noosa, he contemplated his future, and word quickly spread a trade could be on the cards.

Green, 43, got back on the phone.

“Basically I called him up and said ‘Let’s go and have a coffee’. I said ‘What can we do’? (and) ‘What is going on’?” Green said.

“And then from a football point of view, it was like right ‘Let’s have a look at that’.

“People say Christian Petracca is the one who made change. (But) I would say that is disrespectful to Max Gawn, to Jack Viney, to Jake Lever, who all played parts and had conversations in that review.”

But the two main midfielders weren’t the only ones hurting. In the club’s view, coach Simon Goodwin had been the punching bag in a bitter board brawl that hit the courts.

Green says the Demons are lucky to have Goodwin, who told the Herald Sun in an exclusive interview this month that there were times he didn’t want to leave his house last year amid the public fallout.

“It annoys me and frustrates me that he doesn’t get the respect and kudos he deserves,” Green said. “It shits me, actually, that this industry bags Simon Goodwin. He is the only living Melbourne premiership coach and he gets battered and bruised by everyone in this industry.

“He will be a legend of our club. I don’t think he feels the love.

“We have got a beauty. Players love him. He is very smart and strategic. He is a deep-thinker of the game, and he is emotive.

“We need to see more of the Simon Goodwin I see. But he probably didn’t want to go out there and show himself and get burnt.”

Green said there had not been “one iota” of conversation at board level about Goodwin’s contract, which expires at the end of next year, amid speculation he could be targeted by Adelaide.

FOOTBALL DEPARTMENT REVIEW

Green, who captained the Demons, won the best and fairest and played 254 games for the club, said the review into the football department revealed the Demons needed to take some of the intensity out of the training program.

It was acknowledged the players needed some more respite, perhaps physically and mentally.

“What came out of the review was there was a real heaviness or brutality about the program,” he said. “The way our boys trained and played, they said we are getting smacked here every day at training, the way they would bang in.

“The players got to the stage where it was burnout. It probably burned ‘Goody’ out.

“Contest and defence. We aren’t going away from that, but we had to tweak things, because we went from best in contest last year to eighth.

“So if your No.1 banana is not working as well, and you move down to eighth, you are not going to get anywhere.

“We didn’t win any phase of the game last year. We need to reassess how we did things.”

He is convinced the mood has lifted significantly “through the corridors of the club”, noting the “smiles on the players’ faces” following the Bright pre-season camp where the soul-searching was prioritised over the Sherrins.

“It is such a better place,” he said.

PRESIDENTIAL PLANS

But Green is not staying in the president’s hot seat. Steve Smith, the highly respected former Melbourne Cricket Club chairman will take over when he returns form an overseas holiday later in the year.

Green said he could return once his two eldest boys finish high school in about five years as part of a long-term succession plan.

The former forward’s impact has been profound, after tackling the issues head-on, but with the empathy and understanding required to help the football club heal.

The Tasmanian has had his own healing to do, too. Green lost his wife, Anna, who is the mother of his two eldest sons, Wilba and Oliver, after complications from surgery in 2019.

Anna’s memory and love remains a constant in the family. But the devastation of her passing will always provide a perspective when other hurdles appear in life, and football.

HOW MUCH? GREEN REVEALS HUGE TRADE PRICE FOR KOZZIE

“When I took over from Kate (Roffey) as president, people said it was a big challenge. Well, it is nothing compared to what I lived through when I lost my wife six years ago,” he said.

“I went through a period of emotion, the funeral, and come Monday or Tuesday I couldn’t get myself out of bed. But back then I had to, because my boys (aged eight and six) needed me. “When the chips are down someone has got to step up and lead.

“They didn’t have a mum (after Anna’s death) until we met beautiful Caty (Price) and now they have this motherly figure (again), and our 14-month old son, Tommy.

“So we have been through a lot (as a family), and as a footy club we were being challenged, and someone had to step up and go ‘Right, what are we going to do here?’.”

RECOGNISING STYNES

He urged fans to get behind the Demons in 2025 as they prepare to tackle GWS Giants in round one for the inaugural Jim’s Game, in which they will celebrate club legend Jim Stynes with a St Patrick’s Day eve party at the MCG.

Green said the tumult of the past year had shown how footballers and clubs could be imperfect.

“Sometimes you watch footy and you see these gladiators out there and think we’re bulletproof. We are not,” he said.

“We are all emotional people and that sometimes comes out in different ways. So there have been a lot of conversations and their will continue to be.

“I think you will see a different Clayton and Christian now.

“They’re highly motivated, and they were not happy with where the club was at.

“We needed to get everyone in the room. No matter what happens, let’s be open and honest and frank and have heart-to-heart conversations.

“We needed to sit down in the room and be adults. We aren’t perfect, we’ll have challenges, but hopefully as a leader I can help show the way.”