FORMER Carlton coach Michael Voss is no fan of Christian Petracca's in-game spray of young Gold Coast teammate Leo Lombard during the Suns' loss to Carlton, saying "it doesn't look great".
Petracca berated Lombard after the pair got in each other's way at a forward stoppage set play, with TV cameras capturing a close-up of the 19-year-old Lombard telling his 30-year-old teammate to "f*** off".
The Suns led by a goal early in the final quarter before the Blues piled on four unanswered majors to take what proved a match-winning lead in the eventual 13-point win.
The loss was Gold Coast's ninth loss in a row and all but ended the club's hopes of returning to the finals for a second year, having made their September debut last year.
Voss said the incident was less about Petracca's role as a leader, and more about "being a great teammate".
"When we think about being a great teammate, your role is obviously clearly the main part but then being able to do hard things and then your connection with you teammate. So you connect through your role, through your communication," Voss said on AFL.com.au's Access on Monday.
"We can't say what's actually transpired there but it doesn't look great, does it? There's a way that you can talk to your teammates and that's not the way … I didn't like seeing that.
"If you're there to support each other as a teammate, this is not the type of interaction you have with one another. You pick him up off the deck and you say 'mate, let's get going again, we'll get the next opportunity, we'll set up the next forward 50 stoppage and then we'll get our roles right from there'."
Gold Coast's dramatic form slump after winning an elimination final last year has prompted questions about the club's culture and resilience in its third year under triple premiership coach Damien Hardwick.
Voss said displays like the on-field spat between Lombard and Petracca, a four-time All-Australian who won the Norm Smith Medal in Melbourne's 2021 premiership, only fuelled speculation about the environment inside the Suns.
"This is the reason why these conversations are coming up, we're questioning about what's the locker room energy like at the moment," Voss said.
"I'm sure in behind closed doors at the moment, they're trying to figure that out themselves. I'm sure there's plenty of honest conversations that are going on between coach and players, and there's probably some honest conversations going on between player and player, but they certainly  haven't been able to unlock that part of it just yet."
Gold Coast hosts Petracca's former club Melbourne at People First Stadium on Sunday, when he will face his ex-Demons teammates for the first time.
