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And Chief Herald Sun reporter Jay Clark has posed whether the Hawks could be a perfect landing spot for Petracca should he want to remain in the midfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it the writing on the wall for Christian Petracca at Melbourne?,\u201d Clark posed on Fox Footy\u2019s The First Crack.<\/p>\n
\u201cA month ago Petracca, had 27 centre bounce attendances in the Melbourne midfield. But clearly we are seeing a new way under Simon Goodwin. Over the past month, those (midfield) numbers have really reduced.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel like there\u2019s a (trade) market for Clayton Oliver at the moment and Jack Viney is a Demon for life. Petracca is the one who has been frozen out. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo hasn\u2019t he got a big decision to make over the next couple of weeks before the end of the season. Can he accept he could be more of a permanent forward at Melbourne as the new era settles in? Like Toby Greene. Or does he at 29 years of age still think he can be that superstar on-baller?<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause if he does, maybe that has to be at another club. We talked a lot about Collingwood and Carlton las year, is the best fit for him Hawthorn? <\/p>\n
\u201cThey have all the key forwards. But we see Wil Day go down with the foot injury, which is an absolute disaster. Jai Newcombe has had a so-so year. What is it they need to compliment and round out this side to make Hawthorn a genuine premiership contender? Is it a powerful midfielder?\u201d<\/p>\n
Could Petracca be the perfect fit for Hawthorn? Photo by Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Saints legend Leigh Montagna thinks Hawthorn would be a great fit for the four-time All-Australian, but would \u201clove to see\u201d him play as a permanent forward who pinch hits in the middle.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Hawthorn) need another star midfielder, absolutely, particularly with Will Day (out),\u201d Montagna said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I would love to see Petracca stay at Melbourne, I think he can be a very, very good forward. I would love to see him play a full season predominantly inside 50, he can still go and pinch hit in the midfield when required. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think that would be a good fit for Melbourne when they transition. But it\u2019s probably up to him, whether he\u2019s prepared to play that role.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Kangaroos great David King believes a Petracca-Demons split could be a win-win for both parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they have to step on the gas on the rebuild,\u201d King said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes the best result for Melbourne is saying: \u2018You\u2019ve been great for us and we\u2019re going to make a decision good for both of us. We\u2019re amicable, but we have to part company. You have to go get us some high-end picks in and let us be aggressive going forward\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cTry and give what\u2019s left here an opportunity to win while they\u2019re old.\u201d<\/p>\n
PETRACCA\u2019S MIDFIELD DROP<\/p>\n
Round 16 v Gold Coast – 26 CBAs (team ranked No. 3)<\/p>\n
Round 17 v Adelaide – 23 CBAs (No. 2)<\/p>\n
Round 18 v North Melbourne – 27 CBAs (No. 2)<\/p>\n
Round 19 v Carlton – 20 CBAs (No. 4)<\/p>\n
Round 20 v St Kilda – 12 CBAs (No. 6)<\/p>\n
Round 21 v West Coast – 7 CBAs (No. 6) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Christian Petracca\u2019s midfield time at Melbourne decreases and the club moves into a new era, could he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,684,35645,19120,7803,35648,1818,35646,2105,2485,7492,27237,25865,19125,3465,647,7804,35649,35647,15674,677,701,3247,8014,85,1122,7805,35644,19086,660],"class_list":["post-40294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-cotton","tag-centre-bounce-attendances","tag-christian-petracca","tag-clayton-oliver","tag-club-moves","tag-david-king","tag-genuine-premiership-contender","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-herald-sun","tag-jack-viney","tag-jay-clark","tag-leigh-montagna","tag-melbourne","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-midfield-drop","tag-midfield-opportunities","tag-midfield-time","tag-oceania","tag-queensland","tag-robert-cianflone","tag-simon-goodwin","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-star-midfielder","tag-superstar-on-baller","tag-toby-greene","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40294","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=40294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}