Christian Petracca opens up about how he is feeling ahead of the biggest game of his life
HE’S the big-time talent with a big bag of tricks and is about to play on the game’s biggest stage. Just hours before the biggest game of his life, Christian Petracca spoke to SCOTT GULLAN about his finals debut.
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CHRISTIAN PETRACCA knew it was big.
The ramifications had been spelt out clearly in the lead-up and the reaction of his teammates on the ground, the coaches and staff in the rooms afterwards told the story.
But it wasn’t until he answered a call from his best mate just a couple of hours after Melbourne had defeated West Coast in Perth to book a finals berth that the enormity sank in.
“When we made it I was thinking this is pretty cool but to hear my best friend, he’s a Melbourne supporter, to hear him talk about it, to call me after the West Coast game and start crying,” Petracca explains.
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“I was like, ‘Mate, what are you doing?’. I was just thinking ‘Oh yeah, we’ve made the finals and this is awesome’. But to them it is more than footy.”
Petracca is the perfect prototype for September. The big-time talent with a big bag of tricks on the game’s biggest stage.
And he has the personality to match although he’s spent much of the week leading up to the most important game of his life trying not to get caught up in the hype.
He was planning not to watch Thursday night’s qualifying final because he knew it would make him nervous.
Walking his dog, dinner with family and some lengthy sessions on the X-box was the recipe he was using to keep himself in check.
“Everyone wants to play in finals, play in big games,” he says. “It’s an awesome feeling and probably the biggest thing about these types of games is not going away from what we do well, from what got us here.”
He won’t be seeking out four-time premiership teammate Jordan Lewis or anyone else for advice about the much talked about step up in pressure during September.
“I’m pretty good with that stuff. The first contest or the first time you get the ball, you’ll either stuff up or do something good so you’ll go from there.
“You just have to go with the flow a bit, ride it a bit but we’re all in it together”
Petracca, 22, is his own harshest critic and midway through season he admitted his form was below par.
He responded with a career-high 29 possessions in Round 16 against Fremantle and has averaged 20 touches and a goal per game since.
His role has changed with the injury to full-forward Jesse Hogan but Petracca says he’s enjoying the versatility of floating between deep forward, high half-forward or the centre square.
“I like to set very very high expectations on myself and sometimes I can’t reach them which is something as a young kid I’m trying to get balance of.
“I probably feel like I’ve had a better second half of the season, I’m trying to break things down a little bit more and just relax, not worry about making a mistake.
“Just go out and play my role, just do everything for the team and it has felt like my last six weeks has been very good.”
An interview with Petracca doesn’t go by without a question about his friendship with NBA star Ben Simmons.
The pair played junior football and basketball together at Beverley Hills and Whitefriars College. They still regularly chat despite their hectic schedules on opposing sides of the globe.
“I don’t really see him as Ben the NBA player, I see him just as Ben Simmons I guess, it’s cool,” Petracca said.
“The best thing about it is we’re both successful in the sport we’re doing and that is the main thing. We grew up together playing basketball, playing football together and we always wanted to be sports stars.
“To see us now, I’m in the AFL and he’s in the NBA, it’s a pretty cool story.”
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Originally published as Christian Petracca opens up about how he is feeling ahead of the biggest game of his life
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