Christian Petracca earns AFL Rising Star nomination for Round 9
MELBOURNE’S resurgence received another tick with explosive forward Christian Petracca scooping the club’s third Rising Star nomination this season.
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MELBOURNE’S youthful resurgence received another tick with explosive forward Christian Petracca scooping the club’s third Rising Star nomination this season.
Suddenly the Demons have pocketed five of the past 24 nominations — and boom forward Jesse Hogan took out last year’s overall prize.
Since Round 9 last year the AFL has celebrated Hogan, on-baller Angus Brayshaw, midfield bull Clayton Oliver, James Harmes and now Petracca.
Petracca has been crunched into a firm favourite to deliver the Demons back-to-back Rising Star winners.
The last club to boast consecutive Rising Stars was St Kilda when Justin Koschitzke and Nick Riewoldt saluted in 2001-02.
A broken toe sustained on the basketball court delayed Petracca’s AFL debut and he admitted spending three weeks in the VFL was frustrating.
But the No. 2 draft pick and fan favourite who spent last year recovering from a knee reconstruction said the Demons made the right call delaying his hyped first game.
“It (AFL) was different to what I thought to be honest. It’s a lot quicker — the speed is just ridiculous,” Petracca said.
“I was pretty disappointed with my debut against St Kilda and I had to adjust to the speed the next few games.
“I feel as though the more games I play the more confidence I’ve got in my ability.
“I’ve definitely adjusted to the speed and now I’m working on my endurance and that’s slowly getting better as well.
“I’m able to push from contest to contest now, which is good.”
Captain Nathan Jones revealed Petracca had won the nomination in Monday’s game review.
Petracca, 20, said the publicity around his debut was “really tough” but was proud of his response the following week against Gold Coast.
“It felt as if I had to play really well and I sort of didn’t live up to the expectation,” he said.
Petracca said last year’s No. 4 draft pick Clayton Oliver had been the biggest surprise this year and the young Dees were loving learning of the club’s coaching trio — senior coach Paul Roos, successor Simon Goodwin and development coach Brendan McCartney.
“It’s a great trio. They’ve given us a lot of advice and kept it real simple and not too complex,” he said.
“The way they give us the feedback is very positive and not too negative and it’s just a great environment to be in.”
On Oliver, Petracca said: “I didn’t think he’d be up to it endurance-wise, but he’s just a bull isn’t he?
“He’s just so quick and makes really good decisions and is just a great person as well.”
Petracca collected 21 disposals and laid seven tackles in Sunday’s win against Brisbane Lions in his fourth AFL game.
Originally published as Christian Petracca earns AFL Rising Star nomination for Round 9
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