Stats show Christian Petracca is charting Patrick Dangerfield’s rise to KFC SuperCoach stardom
Christian Petracca’s pre-season dominance has sent KFC SuperCoaches into a frenzy, and the stats suggest the Melbourne star is on track to emulate one of the AFL’s premier onballers this year.
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Fifth-year Demon Christian Petracca is charting the same path Patrick Dangerfield took to AFL stardom.
The 24-year-old, who will partner Clayton Oliver in Melbourne’s midfield this year, has rocketed in KFC SuperCoach popularity after scoring a mammoth 188 — 107 more than his 2019 average — against Adelaide on Saturday.
Petracca ($441,300, FWD) has gone from featuring in one per cent of teams to 12 per cent since amassing 38 disposals and bagging three goals against the Crows at Casey Fields.
“I certainly haven’t seen him play a better game,” coach Simon Goodwin said.
“But in terms of that, that’s been coming for a little while. He’s worked incredibly hard, I thought at the back end of last year.
“He took that into his off-season and pre-season.”
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Petracca’s 27 contested possessions were the most in a pre-season game since Dangerfield and Sydney bull Josh Kennedy had 22 in 2013.
Most contested possessions in a pre-season game (2010-20). #MarshSeries #SuperCoach #AFLFantasy #2020AFLProspectus pic.twitter.com/cDbxr5g6Zn
— Fantasy Freako (@FantasyFreako) February 22, 2020
While still an unfulfilled talent, the Demon’s career numbers stack up favourably alongside the 2016 Brownlow medallist.
On how Petracca’s mid-forward split would be decided, Goodwin said: “From game-to-game. We’ll just assess. He was dynamic at both ends today, through the midfield and forward. We’ll just assess that from week-to-week … but we know that he’s done the work for the midfield. That’s a good positive for us.”
After 85 games, Petracca (18.9) has averaged more disposals than Dangerfield (17.9), while his ranking points (79) and clearances (2.4) are comparable to the Geelong midfielder (82 ranking points and four clearances) at the same stage of his career.
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Dangerfield exploded in his fifth season, rocketing from 80.3 SuperCoach points in 2011 to an elite average of 118.9 in 2012.
Josh Kennedy (96.1 to 120.2), Andrew Gaff (87.9 to 103.8), Stephen Coniglio (91.7 to 105.9) and Patrick Cripps (97.7 to 119.4) are other KFC SuperCoach premiums who joined the top echelon of scorers during their fifth AFL season.
Petracca has not averaged more than 81.5 SuperCoach points in four AFL seasons, yet arguably has more upside than Dangerfield did after four years based on a mooted increase in his midfield time.
The Melbourne star only spent 21 per cent of game time as a midfielder in 2019, while Dangerfield had a 44-53 per cent mid-forward split in 2011.
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Petracca has long been renowned as a SuperCoach ‘burn man’ — flush with promise without delivering on his undoubted potential.
This year, the stats would suggest the pre-season hype is justified.
