North Melbourne forward Drew Petrie says he has no intention of calling it quits on a 14-year AFL career after the 2015 season.
Still two seasons away from hitting the 300-game mark, the 32-year-old Petrie wants to remain with the resurgent Roos and has no retirement plans following a nine-goal haul during last season’s finals run.
“It’s certainly not my last year,” Petrie told AFL.com.au.
“It’s funny, as soon as you get to about 29 everyone starts saying ‘Oh, you’re nearly 30’ and 30 for some reason is this age that everyone gets scared of and starts to write players off.
“Sometimes you can get caught up in believing some of that talk, but no I’m honestly taking it week-by-week at the moment and if I’m not of any value to the side at the end of the year well then that’s up to the coaches to decide on.
“But for the moment I’m just going to play my best footy and hopefully help the side make another finals campaign.”
The 197-centimetre tall forward marking option believes he still has a lot to offer following a 50-goal 2014, the second most of his career, but has only recently joined North’s pre-season training after surgery on a troublesome ankle, the first surgery of his career heading into season No.15.
“It’s a case at the moment of me asking to do more and them just holding me back a little bit,” Petrie said of his increasing workload.
“It feels really good and I feel capable of training every single session at the moment.
“It’s been very different (to previous pre-seasons) but I trained really well last week and the fitness felt good. I felt quite sluggish in the first couple of sessions back but last week I felt great.”
The addition of fellow veteran forward Jarrad Waite from Carlton is expected to ease the burden on Petrie according to captain Andrew Swallow.
“We’ve relied on Drew Petrie for too long down forward as a key target,” Swallow said on SEN radio.
“It was great to see big Benny Brown come in and play a bit of a role down there and really make that spot his own, we’ve probably struggled for guys to really stand up and say that’s their spot.
“I think he provides a bit of insurance down there for Jarrad Waite.”
Photo: Chris Hyde/Getty Images.
