‘Incredible bravery’: Demons star Christian Petracca speaks out to praise teammate Clayton Oliver

Melbourne star Christian Petracca has praised the courage of Clayton Oliver in speaking up and stepping back from this weekend’s match after having a downturn in his mental health in the past week.

Oliver, who has battled both mental health issues and physical injuries in recent seasons, had played every game in 2025 but was left in Melbourne after having what the club called “a bad week”.

“I just want to give him a massive shoutout for his incredible bravery and vulnerability to be able to speak up and say he is not all right,” Petracca told Fox Footy.

“We put our arms around him. We’ve come a long way as men, and I think it is incredible that he has the ability to own it – admit he is not going well.

“He hasn’t spoken to us at all – we’ll speak to him throughout the week. As males, we can get ridiculed or shut down for expressing our frustration or emotion, but for him to do what he did was really good.”

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Cats coach Chris Scott has praised his side’s ability to take on the Magpies and get on the front foot, despite their pressure defence.

“Last week was frustrating – it wasn’t a bad loss, we had the chances to win, but we played much better tonight,” Scott said.

“I don’t accept that professionals need a big occasion to lift. I like to think it was a bit more practical, and we worked on some things during the week.”

Scott said the form of Patrick Dangerfield gave “optimistic feelings” about this season, but so did the form of lesser-known players like Connor O’Sullivan.

“Dangerfield is amazing with the way he is playing at the moment, but there are other things that leave us optimistic. Connor O’Sullivan, Mark O’Connor did some good things,” Scott said.

“They [the Magpies] do some things really well, and you have to take that away from them. We had young players take the game on, and we needed to do that.”

Demons skipper Max Gawn said his side was still leaking too many goals late in the game, but he was happy to take a third-straight win.

Gawn had 35 disposals and 47 hitouts while staying in the ruck for much of the match after Harrison Petty had to come off.

“We leaked a few late, which was disappointing but that response in the third quarter – West Coast has been in every game this year until half-time, and we knew if we got them on the front foot, especially at centre bounce then we would be able to do well,” Gawn told Fox Footy.

“We were able to keep at it and in the last quarter we were able to kick a few.

“We dug ourselves a little hole at 0-5, so we can’t look past the next match and that’s Hawthorn. It’s not about stacking wins and losses but whether we can walk off proud of how we played and, for a lot of that game, we were pretty proud.”