The Rise of Tracc

[dazzledavey36 53,193]

Good article on Petracca.

Explosive Demon on the right 'Trac' to fulfilling lofty ambition

[Whispering_Jack 29,317]

26 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Good article on Petracca.

Explosive Demon on the right 'Trac' to fulfilling lofty ambition

I was of the same view for much of the latter part of the season. Petracca was finally showing signs of maturing and even leadership on the field and a great deal of it was possibly going unnoticed because of the team’s circumstances. It’s so much harder to fire on a week by week basis when the team is unsettled and so many of the important components of the team are on the sidelines.

He now appears to have passed his next test by coming back in good shape and raring to head into another pre season campaign. If his mid sized teammates all bring that mindset into 2020 it will represent a major contrast to how the team came into 2019 - they were an underdone and tired looking outfit from the start as evidenced by their failure to score in the opening game v Port and they were often blown away at the end of games.

Tracc is one of those who is leading the way at the moment.

[Lucifers Hero 39,029]

A really good article on the ups and downs of his career so far.

Several clubs came calling for his services at trade time.  A credit to both him and the club that they told them to go away.

I liked this from the article:  Petracca looms as a project player for Burgess, who already played a role in sending the Demon and teammate Christian Salem to Nike World Headquarters in Oregon, United States...They spent 10 days there before returning last week, completing a Burgess-designed off-season program, with some extra input from Nike specialists.  Burgess doing his thing early.

Petracca and Salem are two of our most talented and it will be massive when they both achieve their potential - hopefully sooner rather than later.  It must also be confidence building for them that the club invests in their development in that way.

Petracca is out of contract this year so the sooner he is signed up the better. 

[JakovichScissorKick 771]

  "Christian Petracca is striving to be named alongside Dustin Martin, Toby Greene and Jordan De Goey as one of the AFL's best midfielder-forwards"

 

Then he would want to average 25 touches and kick 25+ goals in 2020.

[old dee 23,510]

13 minutes ago, JakovichScissorKick said:

  "Christian Petracca is striving to be named alongside Dustin Martin, Toby Greene and Jordan De Goey as one of the AFL's best midfielder-forwards"

 

Then he would want to average 25 touches and kick 25+ goals in 2020.

That would do it!

35-40 would be better.

[Lucifers Hero 39,029]

13 minutes ago, JakovichScissorKick said:

  "Christian Petracca is striving to be named alongside Dustin Martin, Toby Greene and Jordan De Goey as one of the AFL's best midfielder-forwards"

 

Then he would want to average 25 touches and kick 25+ goals in 2020.

He isn't far off that:  18.3 touches and 22 goals in 2019 in a team that came 17th with an ineffective midfield.  Martin, Greene and De Goey played in teams that came 1st, 2nd and 3rd with excellent midfields.  And each of those players has more experience as Petracca missed his first year from ACL.

We gush over other team's players but often fail to give credit to our own - not saying that about yourself, just a general comment about DL.

[old dee 23,510]

5 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

He isn't far off that:  18.3 touches and 22 goals in 2019 in a team that came 17th with an ineffective midfield.  Martin, Greene and De Goey played in teams that came 1st, 2nd and 3rd with excellent midfields.  And each of those players has more experience as Petracca missed his first year from ACL.

We gush over other team's players but often fail to give credit to our own - not saying that about yourself, just a general comment about DL.

Your last paragraph is probably the direct result of 50+ years of very ordinary teams that have produced 2GF appearances and zero flags.

We are condition to expect poor player performance.

[Little Goffy 14,112]

54 minutes ago, JakovichScissorKick said:

  "Christian Petracca is striving to be named alongside Dustin Martin, Toby Greene and Jordan De Goey as one of the AFL's best midfielder-forwards"

 

Then he would want to average 25 touches and kick 25+ goals in 2020.

Well, the good news is that is only about a ten percent improvement on his second half of 2019.

Dustin Martin is another step up and I wouldn't want to be greedy, but for Petracca to be talked about alongside Greene and De Goey is absolutely a realistic goal.

It would be a lot of fun to see how he goes when both he and the team are in form. As the article notes, the poor bugger was our leading goalkicker this year in a completely broken, injured and confused forward and half-forward line.

[Bombay Airconditioning 6,219]

1 hour ago, JakovichScissorKick said:

  "Christian Petracca is striving to be named alongside Dustin Martin, Toby Greene and Jordan De Goey as one of the AFL's best midfielder-forwards"

 

Then he would want to average 25 touches and kick 25+ goals in 2020.

Needs to work on his set shots, yes he’s improved that area of his game slightly but he could of easily had a lot more to his name.

[ding 5,126]

I have been extremely critical of Tracs under performance so far in his career, but credit where it is due.

Although he still faded out badly after half time in many games, he lit up a few games early as well. I was impressed how hard he seemed to be attacking the ball in the second half of the year.

Once he has finally sorted his fitness, he may well live up to his (own) hype.

[FireInTheBennelly 4,061]

2 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

A really good article on the ups and downs of his career so far.

Several clubs came calling for his services at trade time.  A credit to both him and the club that they told them to go away.

I liked this from the article:  Petracca looms as a project player for Burgess, who already played a role in sending the Demon and teammate Christian Salem to Nike World Headquarters in Oregon, United States...They spent 10 days there before returning last week, completing a Burgess-designed off-season program, with some extra input from Nike specialists.  Burgess doing his thing early.

Petracca and Salem are two of our most talented and it will be massive when they both achieve their potential - hopefully sooner rather than later.  It must also be confidence building for them that the club invests in their development in that way.

Petracca is out of contract this year so the sooner he is signed up the better. 

I recall a photo with those two and Dunkley, did he go as well?

[Sir Why You Little 36,725]

He had a good Season in 2019, better than most gave him credit for, i believe. 
He can certainly still  go up a notch or two. 
he has good balance, like Martin. 
he needs to use the ball better, but that is practice. Balance is a trait. 

[JakovichScissorKick 771]

22 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

He had a good Season in 2019, 

 

He had a good 2nd half of the season. 

 

[Uncle Fester 2,843]

He is a gun and will only get better. And if he doesn't get 25 plus touches a game then I won't care, because most of what he does other footballers wouldn't even think of doing. He is very, very good at the 1% stuff.

[In Harmes Way 7,716]

I thought Mark McGowan was the premier of WA. What’s he doing writing an article for AFL.com.au?

[Sir Why You Little 36,725]

1 hour ago, JakovichScissorKick said:

 

He had a good 2nd half of the season. 

 

I think his whole season was underrated, we were that bad, i think a lot of Tracc’s hard work was unnoticed. 
And yes his goal kicking was ordinary I am aware of that, but that can be fixed. 

[praha 11,214]

6 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

He isn't far off that:  18.3 touches and 22 goals in 2019 in a team that came 17th with an ineffective midfield.  Martin, Greene and De Goey played in teams that came 1st, 2nd and 3rd with excellent midfields.  And each of those players has more experience as Petracca missed his first year from ACL.

We gush over other team's players but often fail to give credit to our own - not saying that about yourself, just a general comment about DL.

Some of the trash I see written by Petracca here and on Facebook is astonishing. Criticise Goodwin, and the club's lapdogs come to gobble you up. But it's free reign on a player who continues to trend upwards. Astonishing. Trac had a great 2019 and was one of a few highlights amidst a [censored] disgraceful year. True testament to him and his character that he actually got better as the year progressed and our year was shot, and our on field "leaders" did little else but show up (Gawn the exception).

6 hours ago, old dee said:

Your last paragraph is probably the direct result of 50+ years of very ordinary teams that have produced 2GF appearances and zero flags.

We are condition to expect poor player performance.

We expect poor player performance, and celebrate mediocrity because, next to trash, it seems like gold. 

And yet, we hold "potential" in such high esteem that we often bury young kids under the weight of expectation and hope, and often take our frustrations out on them.

Petracca is the new Watts. Good thing he's twice the player and 10x as motivated.

[dazzledavey36 53,193]

4 minutes ago, praha said:

Some of the trash I see written by Petracca here and on Facebook is astonishing. Criticise Goodwin, and the club's lapdogs come to gobble you up. But it's free reign on a player who continues to trend upwards. Astonishing. Trac had a great 2019 and was one of a few highlights amidst a [censored] disgraceful year. True testament to him and his character that he actually got better as the year progressed and our year was shot, and our on field "leaders" did little else but show up (Gawn the exception).

We expect poor player performance, and celebrate mediocrity because, next to trash, it seems like gold. 

And yet, we hold "potential" in such high esteem that we often bury young kids under the weight of expectation and hope, and often take our frustrations out on them.

Petracca is the new Watts. Good thing he's twice the player and 10x as motivated.

Those MFC facebook groups are one of the worst online trash I have read. Those Mods are are useless.

I was a part of few of them but i had to leave due to some vile and personal comments at our own players.

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,663]

9 hours ago, praha said:

Some of the trash I see written by Petracca here and on Facebook is astonishing. Criticise Goodwin, and the club's lapdogs come to gobble you up. But it's free reign on a player who continues to trend upwards. Astonishing. Trac had a great 2019 and was one of a few highlights amidst a [censored] disgraceful year. True testament to him and his character that he actually got better as the year progressed and our year was shot, and our on field "leaders" did little else but show up (Gawn the exception).

We expect poor player performance, and celebrate mediocrity because, next to trash, it seems like gold. 

And yet, we hold "potential" in such high esteem that we often bury young kids under the weight of expectation and hope, and often take our frustrations out on them.

Petracca is the new Watts. Good thing he's twice the player and 10x as motivated.

Is it Patracca doing the trash talking or others writing about him?

Not having a wise crack, it just doesn't seem to fit with the rest of your comments and I'm a little confused.

[binman 42,113]

I'd really love goody to encourage him to go for go goal more often and give some licence to take more low percentage shots

He is terrific at finding team mates and setting up goals and you dont want to lose. But he has great instincts and is real spark plug.

He had an excellent 2019, super consistent. I expect him to go to another level and if he does we will be in for a treat.

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,663]

3 hours ago, binman said:

I'd really love goody to encourage him to go for go goal more often and give some licence to take more low percentage shots

He is terrific at finding team mates and setting up goals and you dont want to lose. But he has great instincts and is real spark plug.

He had an excellent 2019, super consistent. I expect him to go to another level and if he does we will be in for a treat.

Sorry, if we ate to become a great side, I'm not sure that makes much sense.  It's not to say that players should never take a low percentage shot at goal, but that's quite different to giving them a license to do so more often.

When we were up and firing and one of the highest scoring sides of competition in 2018, it was partly because we were creating and taking more high percentage shots on goal and that's where all the focus should be - creating easy shots on goal where we out play the opposition as a team and have players taking marks sitting on there own in space and walking into open goals.

About the only time I can think of I'd give any of our players license to take low percentage shots is in junk time if we are 50 points up, but even then, I think it creates bad habits.

That all said, I wouldn't hold it against any of our players to have a spur of the moment stab at an opertunist throw the boot at one near the goal square in congestion and I think Trac already does this kind of thing quite well as do numerous of our other forwards like Fritter, ABN, Gus, Clary and T Mac.

Edited November 17, 2019 by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

[IRW 1,383]

When Trac can do in 30 touches what Dusty does in 25 then his name can go on the same page.

Same with Oliver...if he can "win " a game with his 35 then he's a genuine A grader matching Dusty's 25 possessions and timely goals.

Reality checks all round please

[Accepting Mediocrity 1,418]

12 hours ago, praha said:

We expect poor player performance, and celebrate mediocrity because, next to trash, it seems like gold.

You called?

 

On Petracca, much of the criticism is downright unfair. He stated a while back that he wanted to be remembered as a "Hall of Famer", and got shouted down on here as being arrogant, all talk and no action. No doubt by the same people who got stuck into Watts when he said losing games didn't ruin his life, or words to that effect. 

No idea how gets pigeonholed as lazy/ fat. I see a highly talented player who works his backside off, but for whatever reason, it hasn't quite clicked yet. Endurance no doubt a weakness, but that will improve. Still, he can do things that no one else on our list, and very few players in the AFL are capable of doing (see goal from 50 while being swung in a tackle against Sydney (?) this year).

A good pet project for the new fitness team. If it clicks, we'll have a genuine matchwinner on our hands. Time still on his side, but needs to keep improving next year if he's to become the player we all know he can be.

 

[Bitter but optimistic 22,120]

Good thread.

I really like Petracca and I reckon he has what it takes to be a superstar.

He had a slow start and he has been inconsistent but not many players start their careers as stars - they learn and work to that goal.

Petracca has shown bursts of brilliance and is becoming more consistent and reliable. There are some question marks about his kicking but reports so far suggest he is making a serious effort toward overall improvement in all aspects of his game.

He's that explosive type of player that can change a game.

Let's hope he shows it in 2020.

[chookrat 4,215]

On 11/16/2019 at 3:49 PM, Whispering_Jack said:

I was of the same view for much of the latter part of the season. Petracca was finally showing signs of maturing and even leadership on the field and a great deal of it was possibly going unnoticed because of the team’s circumstances. It’s so much harder to fire on a week by week basis when the team is unsettled and so many of the important components of the team are on the sidelines.

He now appears to have passed his next test by coming back in good shape and raring to head into another pre season campaign. If his mid sized teammates all bring that mindset into 2020 it will represent a major contrast to how the team came into 2019 - they were an underdone and tired looking outfit from the start as evidenced by their failure to score in the opening game v Port and they were often blown away at the end of games.

Tracc is one of those who is leading the way at the moment.

WJ - His leadership, in the way of setting up, his voice and communicating with his teammates on where to be, to me was a sign he was switched on, in control of his own game and focussed on what the team was trying to do. I'm pretty bullish about what Petracca will become as he has really bought in, had a really good season and looks set to gain alot this offseason.