He's really struggled the last couple of weeks to get to the contest and when he gets it seems to always want to handball.

Not sure weather he's carrying an injury or just needs a week off (which is strange this time of year)

Or does he need to bet put in the guts so he can get his hands dirty?

Thoughts

 

I think his form has reflected our teams form during the past 3 matches. He's had pretty limited opportunity inside 50 and many of his contests he was swarmed by Saints players.

He's playing in a tough spot on the ground. Although he's not getting a lot of clean ball, I don't think he's travelling that badly. 

He's working hard and moving ok, so I just think we persist and his time will come.

Interesting one, I think in the absence of Jones & Viney he was asked to take on a midfield role and the added load may have caught up with him.. I'm backing him in to turn it around, think if we were to make the finals he'd be one of the main beneficiaries of the pre finals bye.. The more he can stay inside & push up around half forward the better I think

Edited August 14, 20177 yr by JV7

Whether or not he's carrying an injury he looks burnt out. I can't wait for him to get another full pre season under him fingers crossed.

He looks proppy at times, but I suspect he's always been like that

Did some nice defensive work at times, his ability to close space quickly is so dangerous, but didn't get the ball in space a lot that's for sure. Took a few flying shots at goal early that weren't really the right call and then became too handball happy after that.

He looked on in the first quarter. Wasn't efficient but was a big part in being around the ball in the forward line threatening. Didn't go his way but he easily could've had the 3 goals Harmes did to starts us off, that was good to see.

If he needs a rest next week to right for round 23 then that's fine with me. Otherwise just get him through to the bye and/or end of year depending what it will be!

Rest him this week against Brisbane. Bring him back for the pies he'll be fresh as a daisy. Bog against them on QB.

Posted this in the "3 word" thread, but more relevant here...

I didn't think Petracca was that bad yesterday. His ability to go at the loose ball in a 2 or 3 on 1 situation and either come away with it, or knock it to the advantage of a team mate is unreal, and he did that several times yesterday.

Also, how good would that goal have been in the first if not for the smother?  

He is not smashing it in the eyes of the statisticians, but then neither are guys like Hannan, but what they do off the ball and/or to help others get the ball shouldn't be ignored.

 

1 minute ago, JTR said:

Posted this in the "3 word" thread, but more relevant here...

I didn't think Petracca was that bad yesterday. His ability to go at the loose ball in a 2 or 3 on 1 situation and either come away with it, or knock it to the advantage of a team mate is unreal, and he did that several times yesterday.

Also, how good would that goal have been in the first if not for the smother?  

He is not smashing it in the eyes of the statisticians, but then neither are guys like Hannan, but what they do off the ball and/or to help others get the ball shouldn't be ignored.

 

Whenever he's near the ball we tend to win the stoppage. His body work is amazing and he demands at least 2 opposition players at a pack. He's not winning much of the ball but he's playing a bull roll and attracting the attention of defenders more often than not.  Saints were overly cautious of him and it opened up ANB and Harmes quite a bit. They also respected Hannan a lot and seemed to smother him.

Every opposition team is terrified of the damage CP5 can do if he's given space

They sit on him and swarm to negate his effectiveness

He'll learn to run harder, cover more of the ground and break pack tags

4 minutes ago, JTR said:

Posted this in the "3 word" thread, but more relevant here...

I didn't think Petracca was that bad yesterday. His ability to go at the loose ball in a 2 or 3 on 1 situation and either come away with it, or knock it to the advantage of a team mate is unreal, and he did that several times yesterday.

Also, how good would that goal have been in the first if not for the smother?  

He is not smashing it in the eyes of the statisticians, but then neither are guys like Hannan, but what they do off the ball and/or to help others get the ball shouldn't be ignored.

 

Hes not that bad, Agreed. We just have high expectations again.

Has struggled to mark which is unusual for him. Hes only young. We need to be patient. A rest isnt too bad for a week.

I said after the Giants game that, in hindsight, we should have given him that week off to freshen him up for the last three games. He's a young player, with a physical game style, who has played 37 consecutive games after none in 2015.

He hasn't been horrible by any means, but he doesn't seem to be 100% right and that is causing him to go away from his natural game a little (eg handpassing so much).

 

 

Such a good user of the ball inside 50, which we desperately need at the moment.  Doesn't need huge possessions to be dangerous.  Great pass to set up Gawn's shot on goal in the first qtr if I recall correctly.

But generally agree he has been down of late.  Could probably rotate him with Maynard back in, Trac out.

I actually think he's been going okay. Not setting the world on fire but doing some nice things, bit like harmes on the weekend his turn for a lick of the ice cream will come 

He's been well down the past three weeks or so. He's not winning anywhere near as much ball, and when he's got it he is hand balling it off instead of looking to use his good vision and kicking skills. He's also only laid 1 tackle twice in the past 3 weeks, so he's putting on less defensive pressure and laying less tackles than Watts, who was dropped. 

I reckon it's a fitness or niggle thing for Trac. He's not getting to as many contests and has bee caught jogging in no mans land a bit recently. When he gets the ball, he doesn't have the petrol in the tank to take off and hit a target, so he handballs it off for someone else to. He's not someone who I think would suffer confidence issues like Watts, so I reckon it's a fitness thing. Maybe a week off to rest him would be a good idea. I don't think he's playing poorly enough to warrant dropping, but he may need a rest for a week. Since coming into the team last year he's now played 37 games in a row and hasn't been "managed" like Oliver and most other youngsters were at times. 

Either way, we need Trac fit and firing for a tilt in September. He could be our x-factor!

I'd play Trac at Full Forward for the first half against Brisbane and see how he goes. One-on-one he is an extremely dangerous player and it'd allow him to at least get a break from the kilometers a mid/half forward clock up.

Isolate him in the square, play Garlett at high half forward to get him into the game early. Weideman or Watts can play a lead-up CHF depending on who is played. 

I think it's important to do some shuffling. Harmes won't have another day-out like that as impressive as his first quarter was. Trac is a much more dangerous deep option. 

Sometimes positional change is needed to give players a spark in form. Harmes and Brayshaw were proof of that on the weekend.

Edited August 14, 20177 yr by stevethemanjordan

1 hour ago, JTR said:

Posted this in the "3 word" thread, but more relevant here...

I didn't think Petracca was that bad yesterday. His ability to go at the loose ball in a 2 or 3 on 1 situation and either come away with it, or knock it to the advantage of a team mate is unreal, and he did that several times yesterday.

Also, how good would that goal have been in the first if not for the smother?  

He is not smashing it in the eyes of the statisticians, but then neither are guys like Hannan, but what they do off the ball and/or to help others get the ball shouldn't be ignored.

 

Spot on. He wasn't that bad yesterday and seems to always attract a couple of defenders which frees up his teammates. On another day he could have kicked a couple instead of one being smothered and another being off line.

He doesn't look overly spent to me. Leave him in and leave him forward. We need our best side every week now and he's definitely in our best side.

Edited August 14, 20177 yr by P-man

The opposition have been putting a lot more work into over the past month because he sees options that few can in contested situations and has developed his game to this point around that. It's why he is so influential despite relatively low possession counts.  Twice yesterday his bullet kicks from the pack were smothered (one of which would've been a goal from the square). He is also being gang tackled in contested situation as Praha and JR alluded to which is limiting his ability to fire out handballs from a pack.

It's part and parcel of becoming an emerging player. Oliver has had to deal with it at stages this year too. Just simple stuff like working on keeping the arms free in a tackle, developing the awareness to take the conventional option to keep possession rather than trying the high risk/return option when it's not really on. 

 

I'll back our coaches into to help him through it. e.g. I noticed Hunt really lowering his eyes inside 50 yesterday. 3 times he burst away then hit up 20-30 m kicks to leading players rather than bombing it to the hot spot. It's obvious he's been receiving instructions to do so and its part and parcel of developing your game.

 

His ability to beat 2 Saints players on the outer wing in the final quarter was exceptional.

He also took a heavy knowck in the second (?) quarter but has definitely been playing below par,

Given his defensive acts yesterday....can we play him there. Swap with Gus?

first quarter was great

haven't watched the replay of the remaining quarters, but at the ground it was noticeable that they seemed to put a lot more work into him defensively

4 hours ago, Thrice said:

I'll back our coaches into to help him through it. e.g. I noticed Hunt really lowering his eyes inside 50 yesterday. 3 times he burst away then hit up 20-30 m kicks to leading players rather than bombing it to the hot spot. It's obvious he's been receiving instructions to do so and its part and parcel of developing your game.

 

personally I would have thought those skills were prevalent in junior footy in all seriousness.

5 hours ago, stevethemanjordan said:

I'd play Trac at Full Forward for the first half against Brisbane and see how he goes. One-on-one he is an extremely dangerous player and it'd allow him to at least get a break from the kilometers a mid/half forward clock up.

Isolate him in the square, play Garlett at high half forward to get him into the game early. Weideman or Watts can play a lead-up CHF depending on who is played. 

I think it's important to do some shuffling. Harmes won't have another day-out like that as impressive as his first quarter was. Trac is a much more dangerous deep option. 

Sometimes positional change is needed to give players a spark in form. Harmes and Brayshaw were proof of that on the weekend.

I was thinking something similar.  All of our tall forwards like to roam, so play Trac as the deep full forward and let the talls roam through HF and wing.  He'd be a horror match-up down there.