{"id":365618,"date":"2024-02-06T02:33:23","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T03:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=365618"},"modified":"2024-02-06T05:03:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T05:03:02","slug":"one-of-us-petracca-defends-troubled-dees-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=365618","title":{"rendered":"'One of us': Petracca defends troubled Dees star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne<\/a> champion C\ufeffhristian Petracca<\/a> has leapt to the defence of troubled star teammate Clayton Oliver<\/a>, as the 26-year-old remains on light duties around the club.<\/p>\n

Oliver has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reason, including his early exit from the club's training camp<\/a> at the end of 2023, following intense\ufeff trade speculation<\/a> as well as a brief hospital visit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Oliver is yet to return to full club sessions, but it doesn't worry his premiership teammate Petracca\ufeff on the eve of the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> How Sharks have hung $7m star out to dry<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Bairstow strokes Ashwin 'feud' with blow-up in loss<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> NRL exiles to fight in bad boy's boxing debut<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"He'll integrate soon," Petracca told media at the Super Bowl launch at Marvel Stadium on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

"It's really nice to see him back with us boys and being around us. He's been training with the rehab group."<\/p>\n

\"Petracca\"<\/p>\n

Petracca knows that it is not only Oliver in the spotlight, however.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old admitted the Demons have tinkered with their game plan in the hopes of righting the wrongs of the two consecutive straight sets exits from the finals.<\/p>\n

And despite Oliver's fitness now in question without a full pre season under his belt, Petracca is certain the star midfielder will be able to slide right in when he returns.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"When you've been away from the club for a few months, obviously there's new things we've improved on and tried to get better at," Petracca said on the Demons' new game plan.<\/p>\n

\"Oliver<\/p>\n

"But he's a pretty good player\ufeff, so I think he'll come up to speed with that (new game plan) when he comes in."<\/p>\n

But despite Petracca's confidence in Oliver's integration back into the team and ability to pick up the fresh game plan, he remained coy on if the 2021 premiership star would even play a game in 2024.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I'm not too sure," Petracca said.\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n

He did however \ufeffpraise Melbourne's management of the difficult Oliver situation over the past few months.<\/p>\n

\"Petracca\"<\/p>\n

"I'm not the one making decisions on whether he's playing or not. But I feel like the club's done a really good job over the last few months managing everything," Petracca said.<\/p>\n

"There's only so much we can control and as a footy club, we have an incredible culture. We do work hard, we do strive to be the best.<\/p>\n

"When he comes into the team, he's one of us and we treat him like one of us\ufeff."<\/p>\n

The Demons \ufeffwill take on Carlton on February 28 in their first practice match, to be held at IKON Park, where Melbourne will be trying out some changes to their game style.<\/p>\n

"It goes very quick, 30 days until round zero (opening round). We're playing practice matches next week. It's been really good, everyone is in great shape," Petracca said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/melbournefc\/status\/1753614288076603599<\/a><\/p>\n

"\ufeffWith us, 95 per cent of the stuff we're doing we're doing really well. Contest, defence, offense. There's no doubt we've got to improve in a few things.<\/p>\n

"We're looking at those things, tinkering with a few things, we're trying to change and adapt. The AFL is constantly evolving, new game styles, we'll work at those.<\/p>\n

"The last few years \ufeffhave been frustrating. For us, I'm a pretty optimistic person and I see there's only ways to improve and get better.<\/p>\n

"Only really actions can tell in 30 days time in round zero."<\/p>\n

Melbourne will take on Sydney at the SCG as part of the AFL's new Opening Round<\/a>, to be played the week before round one of the 2024 season.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne champion C\ufeffhristian Petracca has leapt to the defence of troubled star teammate Clayton Oliver, as the 26-year-old remains on light duties around the club. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":365620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=365618"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365623,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365618\/revisions\/365623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/365620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=365618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=365618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=365618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}