FIND out what’s being said about the club in the major daily newspapers on Monday, June 27, 2011

Herald Sun

Petterd’s true work of arc
By Mark Stevens

BRISBANE had two. Essendon had six. Ricky Petterd had 13. Those numbers, for tackles in the inside 50, sum up an extraordinary transformation of one man and one club. Nobody at the Lions or Bombers will be content with their forward-50 pressure in Round 14. But for Petterd and Melbourne it was a watershed weekend. Petterd's 13 forward tackles, five more than the entire 44 players who lined up for the Lions and Bombers, was the most recorded since Champion Data started keeping the stat in 1999. It was six more than the five players who held the record - Robin Nahas (Richmond), Jeff Garlett (Carlton), Tom Hawkins (Geelong), Robert Copeland (Brisbane) and Andrew Krakouer while at Richmond. Petterd had laid only eight tackles inside the forward 50 in seven games before Saturday, and twice had been dropped to Casey in the VFL to sharpen up. Talk about finding a new level. Melbourne, which shot into the eight with a 27-point win over Richmond, laid 35 forward-50 tackles in total - another record. The Demons beat the previous benchmark of 34, set by Geelong against Brisbane back in Round 12, 2007.