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AFL Daily June 27: Demon Christian Petracca admits he has more to do to fulfill potential
A CANDID Christian Petracca has conceded he is “not the player” he wants to be right now, but the explosive Melbourne forward has committed to becoming more consistent. AFL DAILY IN REVIEW
A CANDID Christian Petracca has conceded he is “not the player” he wants to be right now, but the explosive Melbourne forward has committed to becoming more consistent following a lean month.
SCROLL DOWN TO REVIEW ALL THE DAY’S FOOTY NEWS IN OUR BLOG Speaking at the launch of Sunday’s ‘Welcome Game’ with St Kilda, where the club and the AFL will give away 20,000 tickets to multicultural communities, the 22-year-old acknowledged he needs to turn his undoubted potential into more regular impact on game days. While his form was solid in the early part of the season, his numbers have been down in recent weeks, notably in the Demons’ past two defeats at the hands of Collingwood and Port Adelaide. RUN HOME: WHERE WILL YOUR AFL CLUB FINISH? BIG MONEY: NORTH’S GODFATHER OFFER FOR GUN PIE “I think I’ve got a fair bit of improvement to do,” Petracca said. “I’m not the player I want to be at the moment. “I want to be someone who has an impact in every game. At the moment, I’m probably not doing that. “All I want to focus on at the moment is just doing what Simon (Goodwin) tells me to do, playing my role as that half-forward by putting a lot of pressure on. “That’s the stuff that probably doesn’t get recognised, but it does get recognised inside the four walls.” After having 20 or more disposals in his first four games, Petracca has done it only three times in the eight games since. He has only scored more than one goal on one occasion this year — three kicked against Adelaide in Round 10. “I feel like I started the season off all right,” he said. “My form in the last three or four weeks has been a bit down, but I’ve just got to get back to doing the basics well.” “I know that when I’m at the contest and when I’m around the ball, things happen. I just want to get back to that, and keep having the confidence and believing in myself. “Simon Goodwin has been awesome. He’s put the faith in me, but not just me, (in) all of the other guys as well.” The fathers of Petracca and teammate Christian Salem were both born overseas, and the two Demons have backed the club’s ‘Welcome Game’ initiative on Sunday, after the success of last year’s event. Melbourne chairman Glenn Bartlett said: “Everyone belongs in this game … it doesn’t matter about your background in the game or where you come from. We want to invite new people and to give them an experience at the iconic MCG watching the oldest team.” “It was a huge success last year with 53,000 people (in attendance). We have a partnership to give away 20,000 tickets to target new people to Melbourne.” Salem said he was confident the Demons could hit back after successive losses, saying they were working on several aspects of their game. Petracca believed recent criticism of fellow forward Jesse Hogan from AFL greats Jonathan Brown and Dermott Brereton was harsh. “He has had such an amazing year, with all the adversity he came through last year,” he said. “All we want from Jesse and the 22 guys (each week) is to play their role. We don’t care about kicking 10 goals or having 40 possessions, as long as you are doing your thing for the team.” Watch every match of every round of the 2018 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. SIGN UP NOW >
Originally published as AFL Daily June 27: Demon Christian Petracca admits he has more to do to fulfill potential