Melbourne went down to Carlton 77-76 on Thursday night, but the only reason they were even a chance to win was thanks to one man, Christian Petracca.
After the Blues skipped out to a 36-0 lead, Petracca went forward and willed his side back into the contest with two second-term goals.
He followed that up with two more in the third term to trim the margin to 22 at the final break and ended up kicking another at the 27-minute mark of the fourth to bring the Dees within seven points.
Whilst they’d eventually go down, Petracca finished with a ridiculous stat-line of five goals, 21 disposals, seven tackles and six marks which is incredibly impressive given no forwards have kicked a bag of six or more in 2024.
David King and Kane Cornes were wowed by Petracca’s outing inside 50 and they pondered whether Simon Goodwin should play his star man as a forward/midfielder from now on instead of a full-time on-baller.
King: “To see Petracca do what he did, my god, what a player.”
Cornes: “That was maybe the best individual performance I've seen this year.
“I mean, there's been big ones but that's in the top five, what he did to single-handedly get his side back into that game.
“The problem for them now is what do you do with him?
“We saw this at the back end of last year. They had scoring problems, so they put him forward and he was awesome.
“So, what now? Do they have enough midfield depth to be able to hold him a bit more permanently forward?”
King: “You don’t know until you know.
“I think it's about trust now. Simon Goodwin must look at that and think, ‘How good does our forward line look when Christian’s down there?’.
“Are you better off trialling and asking for a bit more out of some of the younger players?
“I’d look at putting Trent Rivers back in the middle, Tom Sparrow's been in there a lot lately – he was alright again last night, Alex Neal-Bullen went in there … I'd even look at Judd McVee in there, I love what this guy's becoming.
“Just find out what the scope is on some of those younger players through maybe the next five to six weeks in the hope that you can find one … who is their Hayden Young? Who is the guy that can actually just go from a flanker to a damaging mid in a short space of time?
“You don't have to leave Christian 100 per cent forward for 100 per cent of the game, he can float in and out.
“But what a what a talent he is. Not many players in our comp could do that.”
Cornes: “It was unbelievable what we were watching.”
Petracca will hope to keep his strong form up and put the Dees back on the winners’ list when they play the Eagles in Perth next Sunday.
