Christian Petracca was superb in Melbourne's first pre-season hit out against Adelaide - the 24-year old had 38 disposals, 27 contested, and booted three goals.
Petracca's performance is reward for a lot of hard work put in by the former number 2 draft pick, who by all reports, has had the biggest pre-season of his career.
David King told SEN that he believes Petracca's big block of training along with Jordan De Goey's lack of pre-season work will see the Melbourne star surpass his Collingwood rival.
โWhen you see him turn up in absolute peak condition and then get the rewards straight away, you think, you know what? The excuses are gone now,โ King said on SEN on Monday morning.
โEveryoneโs talking about Jordan De Goey at the moment. De Goey and Petracca are the same player. They can do the unbelievable out of the goalsquare inside the forward 50; they can mark; they can crumb; they can do anything with the football in hand; they can go into the midfield and burst and do things.
โTheyโve had two completely different preparations. Weโre going to wait until Sunday to see if Jordan is playing and if heโs able to do what Christian did, but heโs (Petracca) raised the bar."
King said Petracca's transformation has rid the burst players with no tank of any excuses.
โThe excuses for guys who maybe canโt cover the ground and maybe arenโt great athletes is probably gone.
โItโs a credit to Christian what heโs done and we very rarely endorse and wrap up the off-seasons of players because they are professionals and we just expect that what they should do. But to go to this level, I think itโs a fantastic sign for Melbourne.โ
David King is a FLOG
Just report on things that happen. This is just drivel, coming off the back of some of the most pedestrian practice matches we have seen in AFL pre-season history.