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

[Sir Hugh Percy]

Just need to step in and interrupt the love-in for a mo: The kid's ball drop is too high on set shots. This needs to be sorted pronto.

 

[Topkent]

Just need to step in and interrupt the love-in for a mo: The kid's ball drop is too high on set shots. This needs to be sorted pronto.

Everyone should have to practice with Jack Watts a couple times a week

 

[Theseventhhamster]

Everyone should have to practice with Jack Watts a couple times a week

Has done wonders for Harmes. Rubbish kick generally but has completely copied Watts' set shot and now kicks them straight. Never play him at half back again.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

Everyone should have to practice with Jack Watts a couple times a week

Everyone should be Jack Watts

 

[Proper Gander]

Everyone should have to practice with Jack Watts a couple times a week

I think they do sometimes use Watts that way. A couple of times at training I've seen Watts take a group of dudes, particularly the younger players, for a kind of kicking tutorial. It's a great idea. May as well get the most value from everything that anyone can offer, and Watts has one of the best set shot routines in the competition.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

Just had a terrible thought - we lost to GWS twice in 2014 and everyone rioted after the second game. If we'd beaten them they'd have been able to draft Petracca before us...

 

[mrmonkey]

That disappointing second half of 2014 doesn't seem so bad in retrospect

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

That disappointing second half of 2014 doesn't seem so bad in retrospect

I almost killed a man after that Bulldogs loss. And the Port game made me cry.

 

[schmuttt]

Just had a terrible thought - we lost to GWS twice in 2014 and everyone rioted after the second game. If we'd beaten them they'd have been able to draft Petracca before us...

Please don't remind me of that game

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

Please don't remind me of that game

You mean the Christian Petracca cup?

 

[PerfectFooty]

Just had a terrible thought - we lost to GWS twice in 2014 and everyone rioted after the second game. If we'd beaten them they'd have been able to draft Petracca before us...

Do you want the AFL to fine us half a million again?

 

[booshboy]

Can someone please make a GIF, of that steal + goal in the first? Freak.

 

[Topkent]

Has kinda gone under the radar since the Pies game. Kid has moved 273 places to be ranked 91st on the player rankings table and has been in the player ratings AA team for most of the year and is currently in it (so is tom mcdonald!) I think he is going under the Bont rule in that even though he might not get 40 touches his 18 are as damaging as say Olivers 32.

Same system says Tom Mcdonald has been the 3rd best player in the AFL in the last month

 

[saj_21]

Completely agree, he played an inside role on the weekend in the abscene of Viney and got 25 touches. Almost a PB. Doesn't need a whole lot of the footy to have an impact

 

[Topkent]

Completely agree, he played an inside role on the weekend in the abscene of Viney and got 25 touches. Almost a PB. Doesn't need a whole lot of the footy to have an impact

He probably has the highest retention rate of any player in our side Id guess with only Jetta being better. I love it when he has the ball wide out on the 50 and he stops and props and finds a target inside the 50. Does it almost weekly now he has beautiful vision.

 

[TheCount]

I think i said something similar in my GBU, he's not doing the things that are making the media fawn over him, but if you watch him closely, he's absolutely killing it. It's probably similar to what Oliver was doing last year through the middle, if you weren't watching him closely, you might miss it, but it was amazing when you were.

His vision is on a different level, those kicks, as Topkent has mentioned, where he stops up and hits a target inside 50 that he's doing every game at clutch times, aren't easy kicks, but they're always weighted so perfectly.

 

[Sando22]

And his ability to kick a goal when needed has been good too.
I can recall at least 3-4 no where he's burst away from a pack and kicked an important goal from outside 50.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

Had a big second half last week, as did Oliver. It's a myth that these two players have 'poor' tanks - they're average to good at worst, and lift their game when it's there to be won.

 

[Topkent]

Had a big second half last week, as did Oliver. It's a myth that these two players have 'poor' tanks - they're average to good at worst, and lift their game when it's there to be won.

Is it? Neither can run out a few game and would be in the bottom few on the list for their tanks at the moment. Oliver was barely playing 75% game time earlier in the year. Someone like Scully plays 95. That's a poor tank to an elite one.

 

[Tulip]

People bumping threads honestly gives me a heart attack.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

Is it? Neither can run out a few game and would be in the bottom few on the list for their tanks at the moment. Oliver was barely playing 75% game time earlier in the year. Someone like Scully plays 95. That's a poor tank to an elite one.

He's at the standard for midfielders on our list. Go back a couple of months and he's still putting up similar TOG numbers to Jones, Viney, and Tyson

 

[Topkent]

He's at the standard for midfielders on our list. Go back a couple of months and he's still putting up similar TOG numbers to Jones, Viney, and Tyson

Not a chance in hell Clarry or Trac has the running capacity of those 3

 

[schmuttt]

Olivers fitness has improved but along with Petracca and Salem still needs to work on it.

 

[dee_mac]

Petraccas TOG is largely as a forward in the first half of the year too

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

Not a chance in hell Clarry or Trac has the running capacity of those 3

Then why did you use TOG as a measure of fitness when there's no discrepancies?