Ex-footy player Dan Gorringe has made some explosive claims about player manager Tom Petroro after the failed Zach Merrett trade on AFL deadline day.
Essendon captain Merrett was desperate to secure a move to Hawthorn during the trade period, but the clubs couldn't agree to a deal and the veteran skipper was still a Bomber when the deadline passed.
Petroro was seen storming in and out of rooms and acting in an "animated" and "aggressive" way, as observed by Kane Cornes during the heated final hours of the trading period.
Gorringe, who played for the Suns and Blues in his career before making a name for himself on social media, teed off on Petroro on his Dan Does Footy social media page.
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"Firstly, poor Tom Petroro did about 40,000 steps yesterday, up and down the corridor. Someone get the man a Lime Bike," he began.
"But the way he's advised and managed Zach, I'd be filthy if I'm Zach.
"So to not actually nominate Hawthorn, but to drip feed stuff out about Essendon and their standards and their culture and why Zach might want out, wink wink, we're trying to pretty much say the same thing without saying the thing.
"Then to nominate Hawthorn with 36 hours to go, a guy who is the captain of Essendon, when you've had 10 days to do it.
"Tom storms into Hawthorn's room, he points viciously. Poor Jarryd Roughead (Hawthorn's player acquisition manager) cops an absolute drive-by and Roughy's sitting there going 'I've got literally nothing to do with this mate, don't come for me like that'.
"When you have 10 days and then give them 36 hours to work with, what do you think is going to happen?"
Gorringe then took his accusations to another level in comments that have not been verified by The Sporting News.
The Sporting News is not accusing Petroro of any wrongdoing in his handling of the Merrett situation during the trade period.
"And then to text Damian Barrett, who's covering trade period, who's on live TV, after everyone's seen you storming and point the finger, throw your wallet, have a go at Roughy, to then text Damian Barrett something along the lines of like 'they're asking too much, tell them to accept the deal' when Damo's reading it out and feels pretty awkward about what's in the text message," Gorringe continued.
"He left a lot of stuff out, no doubt there's a lot of swear words in there for sure, you're now a rat too.
"So you're the rat that was leaking all the stuff out.
"So not only have you butchered a deal, you're now ratting out what Essendon are doing to a reporter and now making every other manager look like a rat.
"Tom Petroro's getting sacked for sure."