Curry & Beer

Don't forget the golden ticket factor though

I'll take it

pure class

ah yes correction noted and edited. That's still 3 years earlier than Jamar did anything. if he plays more than 2 great seasons he'll be better pretty sure he will ps do you reckon he will go 8 years without a top10 BnF finish? I don't, I reckon he will sneak in year 6, this year.. currently 6th on DLand POTY

Yep, saw this post after the one I just made - he seems absoluelt that type, Riccuito is another player is has often been compared to. Point is, his build should not be viewed as a midfielder's disadvantage, but rather something that allows him to be very damaging in other roles, particularly in the forward half. A player such as this would be incredibly handy in the current side.

but to state the obvious, there are clearly advantages to this body type also, namely the ability to be strong in contests, break and make tackles etc. I went to about 7 pre-season training sessions and I was very excited to see CP, he looked absolutely ready, much more so than BRayshaw. Well, we know how Brayshaw went by comparison. It seems to me that CP is not viewed as solely a midfield talent - he may well end up in the forward half. Of course this will depend heavily on the midfield that develops around him. For those unaware, 'Knightmare' from bigfooty is considered THE authority on draft prospects. Pasted below is his pre-draft discussion of the Truck, found at: http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/knightmare-2014-phantom-draft.1081319/ 1. Christian Petracca (VIC – Mid/Fwd) Height:186cm, Weight: 92kg, DOB: 04/01/1996 Recruited from: Eastern Ranges Draft range: 1-2 Best position/role: Rotational midfielder/forward. Strengths: Front half talent –Petracca can play both deep in the front half as a marking target and off a forward flank to a high standard when playing forward. Deep in the front half Petracca provides strong scoreboard impact and is an imposing marking presence with his 1v1 strength, overhead marking ability, marking on the lead and superior ability to read the drop of the ball. He can deep in the front half also win the ground ball. Petracca can also play off a forward flank and have a big impact, he can on a forward flank accumulate the footy in bunches, do damage with his footskills, present as a strong marking target, provide strong scoreboard impact and push up the field. Midfield talent – Petracca is an improved midfielder this year having improved his endurance and decreased his skinfolds. He has a nice mix between inside and outside game. He is a very good contested ball winner and stoppage player and these areas of his game can continue to improve given his size and strength. He is a strong ground ball winner. He is a strong tackler. He also has a rare power to him not only with his strength to bully guys inside the contest but some real explosive power where he can burst through a contest, come up with the ball and break away from the contest at speed. He also has excellent evasiveness and can sidestep guys and burst away with some real explosiveness. Some of his work inside by hand finding targets also is impressive. Outside the contest Petracca shows that he can find the footy but also use it really well utilising his damaging footskills and vision allowing him to find damaging targets up the field. Scoreboard impact – Forward or through the midfield Petracca provides strong scoreboard impact and is capable of kicking multiple goals and breaking games open with his scoreboard impact in any given game whether that be from set shots or in general play. Strength and power – There are not many 92kg midfielders going around and even fewer with the explosiveness and power of Petracca. He wins his own ball and can either burst through the contest or run around you with ease. He stands up through tackles and has the strength through his core and hips, he can shrug tackles and give a strong don’t argue. In the 1v1 contests he can take advantage of anyone who is not key position sized making him a matchup nightmare. Versatility – Petracca because he can play not only through the midfield but also on a forward flank or deep in the front half as a marking target gives you options and this versatility should also help him receive immediate senior games on any team. Footskills – Has an excellent mix between footskills hitting his targets around the ground with consistency, vision allowing him to find some really damaging targets in great position but also he has the finishing ability and set shot goalkicking to allow him to make the most of his opportunities in front of goal. I have also enjoyed some of his kicks to target while tackled showing that even when tackled he can still execute and find his targets. Marking ability – Few if any medium size types have the marking ability of Petracca. He has the 1v1 marking ability, contested marking ability and ability on the lead to take his marks and he has the strength overhead to take them consistently. He also reads the drop of the ball exceptionally well and uses his body well in the contest allowing him to effectively protect the drop zone making him incredibly hard to defend particularly if he can isolate a smaller player defender deep in defence. Weaknesses: Endurance – His endurance is building and has improved significantly this year to an extent where he can play the majority of game time through the midfield, and his endurance testing at the combine was good but if he hopes to eventually become a full time midfielder he will still need to put a further few seasons of work into building that endurance base. Skinfolds – Like with his endurance his skinfolds have reduced but his skinfolds still appear relatively high and also need to decrease further. Decision making ability – Petracca’s decision making ability while good most of the time can at times can leave something to be desired. Both by hand and foot Petracca with his touches generally looks to do as much meaningful damage as he can but at times as a result of this he can fail to recognise his limitations which can lead to a poor kick or handball and an overall lower disposal efficiency than he might otherwise have. What I expect will improve:I expect Petracca to continue to improve his contested ball winning and stoppage work and take that area of his game from good to eventually excellent. I also expect his endurance and skinfolds to improve. I also imagine his disposal efficiency to increase as he improves his decision making ability and better learns when he can do damage and when he needs to go the safe option. Who he can become? I anticipate Petracca to develop into a player largely similar to Dustin Martin but without the personal issues. I see Petracca mostly playing as a damaging forward flanker at first who will at times push deeper into the front half splitting his minutes between playing through the front half and midfield with those midfield minutes increasing as he improves his ability up the ground. When will he be ready to play? Petracca is season one, round one ready to play. He I imagine will start off season one mostly playing in the front half and by season two or three likely play more a split between forward and midfield minutes. How to best utilise him? Petracca today is best utilised at the moment in the front half because he is just so damaging forward of centre. The hope will be that he becomes more a midfielder but I would look for him to split his minutes between the midfield and front half long term as he is a rare weapon forward of centre. Interpretation of his numbers: Petracca well and truly has the performances on the board and is one of if not the best performed player in this draft class based on his form these past couple of seasons through the TAC Cup and U18 championships. He is finding the footy but also providing heavy scoreboard impact at both levels which such suggests he will provide both a strong immediate impact at AFL level but also that he will become one of the best to come out of this draft with those high production power midfielders who can provide heavy scoreboard impact of strong value to teams.

With today's signing being a type of symbolic 'changing of the guard' I bring a little comparison to Mark Jamar's career... ('big blokes take time'): Picked up in the 2001 rookie draft Managed 20 games in his first 4 years at Melbourne Became a regular after that, but was famous for laughably poor statistics Did not make the top 10 of the BnF for his first 8 years, before: 2010 - All-Australian, 3rd in the BnF in 2011, he finished 7th, has not featured since Career average disposals 8.2 (!) I'm not making this post to carp on the Russian - it just occurs to me that he took a VERY long time to come on, he racked up 8 years and probably 70 games of very low quality before doing anything. Even in his prime as a tap ruckman, his work around the ground left much to be desired. Myself and many others pined for his delisting until we were finally proven wrong with his breakout year. Unfortunately, that flame only burned for 2 years and fizzled out again. Maxy, by comparison: Taken at ND pick 34 in 2009 again, just 26 unremarkable games in his first 4 years, although hampered by injury I would argue he has broken out already in year 6 - compared to Jamar's year 9 My point is simply that he looks to be way ahead of Jamar at their respective stages - hopefully that translates into a player who can be a step higher and go for yers longer than the service the Russian gave us. A toast to the changing of the guard'.

so is Tommy Mac out or not?

this thread reminds me of those folk around here who reckoned Viney was going to be too short to make it in the AFL

so you've named 8 better out of the top 12 who are the other 12 that keep him out of the top 20 then

hahaha pizz off Trengove

R1 2016 INS: Petracca, Trengove, Frost, Kent, TBD A+ Midfielder

source

What are you suggesting, just let someone else give him the money so they can deal with the distracted superstar?

Throw in Gawn and possibly Trengove (keep hope alive) and we are bringing together a nice little squad. The problem is though we only have Hogan and Tmac at either end, we need more KPD/KPF for mine. We have Frost, but that's far from a sure thing. There is literally nobody else coming up the ranks unless Oscar Mac and/or King quickly starts to do some damage. They are nowhere near it at present. The other problem is that KP's tend to take longer to hit their straps (unless you are a freak like Hogan, and we won't be finding another Jesse any time soon). I'm not sure our focus on a gun midfielder is putting our eggs in the right basket at this time.

and about making the bloke in the other colour jumper experience pain. These are Viney's only interests.

In a peverse way it has some merit though... ---> regain respect and prove themselves... disappoint everyone again.. repeat -->

Only problem with that is the group from 2007 has been almost entirely replaced bar about 3 players

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of all opposition sides highest goalkickers compared to our own, in those 21 losses

How much could we use another Robbo type now, that would be very handy indeed

Mate, that is obviously wrong. You have missed the point completely. Our last win there was R18, 2007. Since then we have played 175 matches. At Etihad, we have had 0 wins and 21 losses - 0% Everywhere else, we have had 41 wins and 114 losses - 26% So yes, we have been terrible but there is obviously some truth to the notion that we are EXTRA terrible at Etihad. What I am trying to get to the bottom of, is whether it is just plain coincidence or some other unknown reason. Is that spelled out clearly enough now or do I need to break it down further?

Way under. I actually take a second to at least address the content of the person I'm disagreeing with.

so I suppose you have some tangible explanation as to why we lose there so often apart from pure coincidence

i just get annoyed sometimes with idiotic posts like ignoring real facts in favour of an apparently cursed venue (it's haunted ooooooh) obviously you had nothing genuine to say about those facts so you just pretended they weren't there huh par for the course round here like I said, 'whatever'