\n The former Demon is excited about joining Gold Coast’s midfield, and playing alongside Bailey Humphrey\n <\/p>\n
Gold Coast recruit Christian Petracca poses for a photo on October 17, 2025. Picture: Getty Images<\/p>\n
CHRISTIAN Petracca has already spoken to new teammate Bailey Humphrey about how excited he is to learn from the 21-year-old star when the pair link up for Gold Coast pre-season training next month.<\/p>\n
Petracca made his first public appearance in Suns colours on Friday, saying his decision to leave Melbourne after 11 seasons was all about football.<\/p>\n
“I’m incredibly grateful and appreciative of my time at Melbourne,” the 29-year-old told reporters.<\/p>\n
“I’ve made so many special memories and friends that I’ll hold with me for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n
“Footy was always the number one priority of my decision. I love my job, I’m passionate about my football. I know I can go to another level with my football.<\/p>\n
“Every year you see the Suns get better and better, and I want to be part of something special.”<\/p>\n
Petracca played 212 games in 11 seasons for the Demons, that included a Norm Smith Medal in the drought-breaking 2021 premiership, but with four years remaining on his current deal, wanted out.<\/p>\n
He said Damien Hardwick was impressive, while the thought of his new midfield mates was also exciting.<\/p>\n
“It’s pretty crazy when you look at some of my teammates that are going to be in the midfield with me – Noah Anderson, Matt Rowell and Touk Miller as well \u2026 hopefully I can bring something to them, but also I can learn off them as well.<\/p>\n
“I don’t mind the Melbourne bubble. I’ve been there all my life, I grew up there, I love footy, but for me the decision was about football, and I’m absolutely excited to be part of the Suns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One man he can’t wait to play alongside is Humphrey, himself the centre of Trade Period stories after meeting with new Melbourne coach Steven King.<\/p>\n
Christian Petracca is tackled by Bailey Humphrey during the round three match between Melbourne and Gold Coast at the MCG, March 29, 2025. Picture: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Petracca said the pair had been in touch for “three or four years” after the four-time All-Australian took a liking to his fellow Victorian\u2019s draft highlights.<\/p>\n
“I’m incredibly excited to work with someone like him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He reminds me of myself when I was at that age, raw, but he came fourth in the best and fairest, which is pretty scary considering how many more levels he can go to.<\/p>\n
“We had a phone call the other day about his role and how excited I am to play with him and learn off him about that role and how explosive he is.<\/p>\n
“The culture of the Suns is why I came here too. What they\u2019re building is special.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Demon is excited about joining Gold Coast’s midfield, and playing alongside Bailey Humphrey Gold Coast recruit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-220334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-text","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}