Brent Harvey Medal Presentation
Life Membership Speeches
Brent Harvey and Shannon Grant IV's
Adam Simpson Speech
Shannon Grant Retirement Speech
Jess Sinclair Retirement Speech
Dean Laidley Speech
LEADING Friday night’s Syd Barker Medal count after 16 rounds, star North Melbourne big man Drew Petrie didn’t prepare himself for a possible victory.
“[For him] to win it two years in a row [is terrific]. [He’s] a consistent player, a good bloke, a great mate of mine,” he said.
“He looked after me. I lived with him for two years in the early days and got to see first hand how he goes about his work. He’s a great bloke to have learned the craft off.”
Petrie finished on 731 votes, 60 ahead of third-placed Brady Rawlings and 28 adrift of Harvey – who claimed his fourth best and fairest award since 2003 and became just the fourth North Melbourne player in history to achieve a quartet.
In some senses, Petrie’s campaign had similar emphasis. He took his career and leadership to another level, signed a new three-year deal, registered his 150-game milestone and averaged almost 16 possessions and seven marks across all 23 matches.
Nomination to the All-Australian squad followed.
But it was against Collingwood that the 25-year-old’s year peaked, with 20 possessions, 11 marks, 26 hit-outs and two goals one of 2008’s most complete individual performances.
Trailing by 13 points at half time, Petrie’s switch to the ruck had a telling impact as the Roos added 12 goals to the Magpies’ seven to generate an 18-point win.
He earned three Brownlow Medal votes for the match, while North’s coaching staff awarded him 45 out of a possible 50 in the Syd Barker tallies.
And it was then that Petrie took a two-point lead over Harvey with seven games remaining.
“It’s hard to play four quarters of footy but I felt I did that night,” he said. “All I can remember was the week after [against Melbourne] I didn’t play that well and I think it’s important that if you play one good game, that you should be able to put two and three together.
“But that Collingwood game was an important one for the club and it was good to play well in it.
“I knew my last month was fairly quiet. I knew that middle part from about [rounds] 10 to 17 was where I’d get a few votes but after that there wasn’t much to talk about.”
Obviously disappointed with the Roos’ early finals exit, and to some extent his own contribution in the latter stages of the season, Petrie shares the sentiments of captain Adam Simpson – who addressed the function regarding the players’ resolve.
“He (Simpson) echoes what the rest of the boys are feeling,” Petrie said. “I’m glad he went up and said that because our supporters, some might be happy with just making the finals but for him to get up and say that we’re not happy with what happened was a good thing.
“We haven’t had anything to celebrate this year whereas last year we made a prelim and, while we got flogged, it was still a positive year.
“I’m kind of keen to get away from things and forget about footy for a while, but at the same time really keen to get into it again and right a few of the wrongs from this year.”
