‘Broken club’: Petracca’s teammate spray exposes Suns issues
Nathan Brown fears that the severity of Christian Petracca’s spray to teammate Leo Lombard shows there are serious issues at the Suns after the two clashed in the final quarter of the Gold Coast’s 16.14 (110) - 15.7 (97) loss to Carlton.
With seven minutes to go, the Suns were down by 12 points and inside 50 as Lombard and Petracca ran the same channel.
Leo Lombard looks on after a spray from Christian Petracca. Fox Footy
Lombard grabbed the Sherrin and was caught holding the ball with Petracca giving him a fiery spray in the aftermath.
In response, Lombard told Petracca to “f--k off”.
The exchange was viewed by many experts to be proof that there could be some internal issues at the Suns, given their nine-game losing streak.
One of the biggest concerns flagged by pundits was Petracca’s choice to circle back and flame his junior teammate again after the initial spray occurred.
Rory Sloane recognised it is not uncommon to see incidents like this unfold between teammates, regardless of their age or position on the team.
Brown believes it did no favours for the team in dispelling talks of internal issues.
“It looks to be (they are an unhappy team),” he said on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.
“(Petracca) looks like a frustrated footballer out there.
“A long spray - it does happen. There would be about 40 sprays happen out there on the field in any given week. It was just that this one was on the camera.
“I can understand where Christian was coming from and obviously that response came, but Leo will remember that.
“Hopefully, Christian looks at that, apologises and tries to move on and hopefully they also look at that as a club, because they look like a broken club.
Isaac Smith agreed before noting that Lombard will now be hearing various opinions of the incident and how he should correctly move on from it.
On Fox Footy, David King shared a similar view to Smith, but he flagged that the Suns should come down hard on Petracca for the way he handled the situation.
“They need to get to the core of these problems,” he said.
Christian Petracca was in the spotlight all afternoon against the Blues. AFL Photos
“Damien Hardwick will say that happens 100 times a game, and maybe it does, but not to that level, not to a level of a senior player chasing back in and barking back in while a young player’s on the ground.
“I understand feedback can be harsh and severe … but not a senior, core 30-year-old to a 19-year-old, 20-gamer.”
King’s foreshadowing was almost spot on with Hardwick saying post-game that those incidents would happen thousands of times over the weekend.
When asked about the exchange, Hardwick initially acted unaware of the harsh words, saying “clash in what way?“, before going into greater depth.
“The game requires feedback. How you respond to that feedback is something Leo as a young player, he’ll get better at,” he said.
“I’m not privy to the conversation, we’ll talk about it during the week. It is what it is, happens thousands of times over the weekend.”
The Suns will return to action next Sunday when they host the Demons.
