CHRISTIAN Petracca and his teammates alike have been dealt their fair share of scrutiny to start 2019.
After dropping the opening three games of the season, the Demons had targets on their backs in the media and were forced to block out the noise.
But Petracca says dealing with the negativity is not always easy.
“It is hard. Being a young player and obviously having a lot of talent and stuff like that, it’s pretty frustrating to hear people bring you down,” Petracca said on the club’s Inside Melbourne podcast.
“I’m a person who’s got a lot of energy and positiveness, so that was very frustrating, but you just can’t read into it.”
The Dees had plenty of hype leading into the season after a Preliminary Final berth in 2018. But losses to Port Adelaide, Geelong and Essendon saw the pressure mount on the group as a whole, and on the individual players who hadn’t reached their expected heights.
“I’m fortunate I’ve got two great captains in Jack (Viney) and Jonesy (Nathan Jones),” Petracca said.
“Jack was giving me heaps of advice saying, ‘You’re doing everything right from Monday to Friday, it’s eventually going to click’.
“And the last two games against Essendon and then Sydney have definitely been a step in the right direction.
“So I’ve just got to keep trusting the process a bit and not worry about what anyone else thinks and worry about what people inside the four walls think.”
While Petracca admitted his form during the early games wasn’t what he would’ve liked, it certainly wasn’t due to a lack of effort.
“You know you’re trying your hardest,” he said.
“You’re not going out there trying to play bad.
“I’m trying to do my bit for the team, and at the same time we weren’t winning as well, so it was pretty frustrating.
“But to play well the last two weeks and then get a win against Sydney was a relief, but at the same time we’re still hungry for more.”
Listen to the full podcast below:
In Episode 35 of Inside Melbourne, we discuss the win in Sydney (1:00), Christian talks on how he deals with the media and criticism (6:40) and Jack gives us an insight to Christian's character (10:00). Then back from the break, Christian tells us about his parents' sporting history (21:00), we find out his first jobs before football (22:00), his obsession with shoes (31:00) and much more with questions from the outer.
