Player Watch #5: Christian Petracca – Norm Smith Medallist, 4 x All-Australian and 2 x Best and Fairest

Dec 15, 2008
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Trac notched up 94% TOG on Saturday. Probably because of injuries but he didn't seem too tired in the fourth, good signs.

Probably should have managed more than two tackles though...
He should be appearing tired, after the 4th Qtr He should be nearly spent. As they all should be. If he's not absolutely cooked by then, why not.?

With 3 injured on the bench, for much of the game, i'd say most players would have had huge minutes played.
It's not the time to slack off on our players,. its time to expect more of them.

Otherwise this same Melbourne attitude will continue,. that our boys are, well, our boys, and are above criticism.
And this club will continue along it's Deemize.
 

Russian Demon

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My opinion is taken from watching him specifically, during goal celebrations for others efforts & goals during the course of this year. He doesn't go near matching the joy of others, in celebrating their goals, or wins. Maybe he's too stuffed to care.


His lacking fitness is his fault, and his size as well. He needs to work harder preseason and off season, and during the season, and in games. He has improved over the past month, as is eveident to all. This should not be noticeable from a player, IF they are alwaysbusting their arse


Where, how many, few and far between this, Not counting this past month.


Weideman is just a kid in senior terms, just starting his senior career, and hasn't the body yet, nor fitness to compete fully with the big defenders.
As a comparison between both Petracca and Weide. Tracca is 1.5Yrs older, and 50 games more senior to Weide. Much more experienced, and comparatively pound for pound, still has a more robust body than the taller Weide, in comparison to their relative opponents.
Weide = 0.497 Kgs per Cm. Tracca = 0.516Kgs per Cm. Weide needs to get bigger to compete. Tracca needs to reduce weight/mass, to improve his fitness/running ability, and agility.



Well actually, not just my friends, but also my past workmates over the decades, from the building industry. Most, are laconic, and quite lazy and would rather sit and eat, than work or play hard.

Re Tracca, I was being specific to him. From my observations of Tracca over last year and this season. Up until the past month of footy. Where its been noticable, that his efforts have finally risen to a better standard, thus far. A more acceptable level.

I think Tracca has further to go, than Weide does. Before they break out, in AFL terms.
Its not often we get to see both player apologetics and player disdain in the one post.

Might be nice if the stats and excuses in both cases were vaguely unbiased or compared evenly.

On SM-G930F using BigFooty.com mobile app
 

Cannon82

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Weideman is just a kid in senior terms, just starting his senior career, and hasn't the body yet, nor fitness to compete fully with the big defenders.
As a comparison between both Petracca and Weide. Tracca is 1.5Yrs older, and 50 games more senior to Weide. Much more experienced, and comparatively pound for pound, still has a more robust body than the taller Weide, in comparison to their relative opponents.
Weide = 0.497 Kgs per Cm. Tracca = 0.516Kgs per Cm. Weide needs to get bigger to compete. Tracca needs to reduce weight/mass, to improve his fitness/running ability, and agility.

I don't really want to chip in here as I don't care enough to get into a stoush, but what's your Goldilocks zone here if Trac is unfit and needs to lose weight at 0.516 kgs/cm and the Weid needs to develop his body to compete with men at 0.497 kgs/cm? I guess we're assuming somewhere in the middle so we're looking to get our players to around the 0.508 to 0.510 kgs/cm mark? Fat Maxy Gawn needs to lay off the carbs at 0.524 kgs/cm, and wimpy, childlike Clayton Oliver needs to pack some meat onto his waifish frame at 0.444 kgs/cm.
 
Dec 15, 2008
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I don't really want to chip in here as I don't care enough to get into a stoush, but what's your Goldilocks zone here if Trac is unfit and needs to lose weight at 0.516 kgs/cm and the Weid needs to develop his body to compete with men at 0.497 kgs/cm? I guess we're assuming somewhere in the middle so we're looking to get our players to around the 0.508 to 0.510 kgs/cm mark? Fat Maxy Gawn needs to lay off the carbs at 0.524 kgs/cm, and wimpy, childlike Clayton Oliver needs to pack some meat onto his waifish frame at 0.444 kgs/cm.
Because Weide is a key tall obviously, competing against key defenders, and so needs to be stronger and heavier to do his job. He is under armed for his battles, to get his job done. Still growing and building.

Tracca is a Half-forward flanker/Mid, and competes against elite fitness beasts. He needs to compete better against them. Not little cameo's here or there, but getting around the ground contest to contest, and be able to burn off opponents after he wins the ball.

We need him, to be better, fitter, faster, and more agile. If WE are to do anything at all, next season.
Weide as well, has to improve physically and mentally stronger. but he is 1.5 yrs behind Tracca, in age and in physical development.

When these two guys grow up, we will be a much stronger team.
 

Cannon82

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Because Weide is a key tall obviously, competing against key defenders, and so needs to be stronger and heavier to do his job. He is under armed for his battles, to get his job done. Still growing and building.

Tracca is a Half-forward flanker/Mid, and competes against elite fitness beasts. He needs to compete better against them. Not little cameo's here or there, but getting around the ground contest to contest, and be able to burn off opponents after he wins the ball.

We need him, to be better, fitter, faster, and more agile. If WE are to do anything at all, next season.
Weide as well, has to improve physically and mentally stronger. but he is 1.5 yrs behind Tracca, in age and in physical development.

When these two guys grow up, we will be a much stronger team.

Doesn't seem like much of a metric if you've just adjusted for height and you still can't compare two players. None of what you've said is unreasonable, but stop pulling random things out of the air like they mean something. Plenty of people have been saying Trac needs to shed a few and that the Weid still has a bit of development ahead of him without needing to diagnose their height, weight, hair colour and stool consistency.
 
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Doesn't seem like much of a metric if you've just adjusted for height and you still can't compare two players. None of what you've said is unreasonable, but stop pulling random things out of the air like they mean something. Plenty of people have been saying Trac needs to shed a few and that the Weid still has a bit of development ahead of him without needing to diagnose their height, weight, hair colour and stool consistency.
Randon things 'out of the air', 'metrics' ,.. you love to play with words and portray yourself like some office toss, don't you.

It shouldn't be up to the supporters, to be pointing out that Tracca needs to lose weight, and get fitter, and more agile.
If supporters can see it, then it ought be happening. Rather than supporters like you arguing a toss.

He is too heavy, you know it, I know it, and most know it.

Aside from that, it has to happen, and hopefully before the start of the 2020 season. So we can have a real crack at it then.
 

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Doesn't seem like much of a metric if you've just adjusted for height and you still can't compare two players. None of what you've said is unreasonable, but stop pulling random things out of the air like they mean something. Plenty of people have been saying Trac needs to shed a few and that the Weid still has a bit of development ahead of him without needing to diagnose their height, weight, hair colour and stool consistency.

or using experience with people of similar ethnicity as a justification to why Petracca is lazy.

In regards to the weight debate, Dane Swan looked like a park footballer but was a running machine.
 

saj_21

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Pretty crap defending from Jones though. He just kind of assumed Trac was going to handball it backwards so had already half-committed to going that way.

He protected the dangerous space, but Trac was too good. Either way i just like to see Trac take it on more often.
 
Because Weide is a key tall obviously, competing against key defenders, and so needs to be stronger and heavier to do his job. He is under armed for his battles, to get his job done. Still growing and building.

Tracca is a Half-forward flanker/Mid, and competes against elite fitness beasts. He needs to compete better against them. Not little cameo's here or there, but getting around the ground contest to contest, and be able to burn off opponents after he wins the ball.

We need him, to be better, fitter, faster, and more agile. If WE are to do anything at all, next season.
Weide as well, has to improve physically and mentally stronger. but he is 1.5 yrs behind Tracca, in age and in physical development.

When these two guys grow up, we will be a much stronger team.
weight doesn't equal strength
 
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or using experience with people of similar ethnicity as a justification to why Petracca is lazy.

In regards to the weight debate, Dane Swan looked like a park footballer but was a running machine.
Dane Swan was one of the hardest workers of afl history. In his case he didn't need to drop weight to aid his ability to get around the ground and to contests after contest. His Brownlow history is testament to his workrate.

Tracca has had nowhere near Swan's workrate. And Tracca's career workrate has been poor. Don't base your opinion of his work, just on the past month of footy.
 
Of course it doesn't, it equals mass. And more mass takes more effort to push around a footy oval. And at speed.
so you want the players to have a big mass rather than strength?

I am unsure of what you are saying
 

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Wait.. have you ever looked at Usain Bolt compared to Craig Mottram? I'm not sure which proves your point less or more...
 

saj_21

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Dane Swan was one of the hardest workers of afl history. In his case he didn't need to drop weight to aid his ability to get around the ground and to contests after contest. His Brownlow history is testament to his workrate.

Tracca has had nowhere near Swan's workrate. And Tracca's career workrate has been poor. Don't base your opinion of his work, just on the past month of footy.

Was I comparing their work rate? Or comparing their body shapes?

I wouldn’t describe swanny as one of the hardest workers in afl history, remember rob Harvey use to to run 5km for extra after training. Swanny definitely lived by the train hard, play hard, party hard mantra.
 
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Out of contract next year, how has everyone seen his year?

18 disposals and just over a goal a game average, his conversion is much better this year (60% accuracy vs 45% last year) but aside from that he still floats in and out of games way too much. Would like to see him improve his tank further and play more midfield, he offers a different dimension with his power (Isn't super quick but is incredibly strong in the contest) and his kicking 'can' be very good. I'd expect him to put off talks at the start of the year and look to have a really good season to boost his value, hopefully it doesn't backfire like it did for Weid.
 

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Out of contract next year, how has everyone seen his year?

18 disposals and just over a goal a game average, his conversion is much better this year (60% accuracy vs 45% last year) but aside from that he still floats in and out of games way too much. Would like to see him improve his tank further and play more midfield, he offers a different dimension with his power (Isn't super quick but is incredibly strong in the contest) and his kicking 'can' be very good. I'd expect him to put off talks at the start of the year and look to have a really good season to boost his value, hopefully it doesn't backfire like it did for Weid.
I dunno. It's frustrating we still have to judge him like a first year player, looking for signs of development and small passages of play that point to a brighter day.

He has done some exciting stuff the last month. Getting around Jones to goal, beating the dogs bloke around the boundary line and then hip shaking a couple of blokes against the Eagles in the midfield. What's really good about him is in the midfield he attacks with the ball and exits the front of the stoppage. Would really like to see him get a few more shots on the run though
 
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I dunno. It's frustrating we still have to judge him like a first year player, looking for signs of development and small passages of play that point to a brighter day.

He has done some exciting stuff the last month. Getting around Jones to goal, beating the dogs bloke around the boundary line and then hip shaking a couple of blokes against the Eagles in the midfield. What's really good about him is in the midfield he attacks with the ball and exits the front of the stoppage. Would really like to see him get a few more shots on the run though

He doesn't accumulate like Brayshaw and Oliver do, I reckon he would be a much better player with a 75% mid 25% forward split as you want him in as many contests as possible.
 

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He doesn't accumulate like Brayshaw and Oliver do, I reckon he would be a much better player with a 75% mid 25% forward split as you want him in as many contests as possible.

Oh yeah. When/if he starts averaging closer to 25 touches he will be our most damaging player
 
Out of contract next year, how has everyone seen his year?

18 disposals and just over a goal a game average, his conversion is much better this year (60% accuracy vs 45% last year) but aside from that he still floats in and out of games way too much. Would like to see him improve his tank further and play more midfield, he offers a different dimension with his power (Isn't super quick but is incredibly strong in the contest) and his kicking 'can' be very good. I'd expect him to put off talks at the start of the year and look to have a really good season to boost his value, hopefully it doesn't backfire like it did for Weid.
Has been close to our best in the last month, which says a lot about where we're at but he's having a decent season.
 

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He has a consistent 10 weeks without dominating, the Carlton game being his best. I liked seeing him in the midfield after Viney went down, he actually holds onto the ball as opposed to the hot potato some of the mids play.

I'd like to see Goody give him more time in the midfield these last 5 weeks, it will give the coaches a chance to see what he can do and Trac may realise what he has to do over the pre season to get more midfield time.
 

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I feel like he hasn't really enhanced his reputation this year, he continues to show enough to keep us all interested, but he remains a tease. Definitely like him more in the midfield with rests up forward, but with Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw already inside mids not sure how feasible that is.
 
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