Ricky Petterd Biography

A serious foot injury has forced Ricky Petterd to announce his immediate retirement.

Petterd had surgery earlier this year after suffering the injury in the round two loss to the Western Bulldogs and has been unable to recover sufficiently to return to the field.

Petterd retires after 84 games across nine season with Melbourne and the Tigers.

"I had pondered it for a while now, even before the foot injury. At the start of the year I was thinking whether it was going to be my last year or not," Petterd said.

"It hasn't healed as well as we thought it was going to. I ran for the first time on the weekend, and it pulled up pretty ginger again, so that was kind of the last straw for me.

"The docs and the physios were doing everything right to get it there, but it's just not going as quick as we thought.

"To get the opportunity to be in the system for nine years, I consider myself very lucky."

Richmond has re-signed six players, including versatile defender Jake Batchelor and Ricky Petterd.

Batchelor has inked a deal that will keep him at Punt Rd until at least the end of 2016, while Matt Dea, Matt McDonough, Todd Elton and Petterd have also put pen to paper.

Former Port Adelaide midfielder Matt Thomas has re-signed as a rookie-listed player for a further year as well.

Richmond rookie recruits Ricky Petterd and Orren Stephenson have been promoted to the senior and Tigers skipper Trent Cotchin believes both will get plenty of opportunities this year.

"They've both played some really good footy over the pre-season and they've trained really well and almost haven't missed a beat, so I'm sure that will come into its own next week when the side is put out," Cotchin said.

"Big O has been fantastic; he's going to be there as a support for big Ivan Maric, and Ricky has come into the side and played a defensive role for us.

"I think it's a fresh start for him and he's pretty excited about it, and hopefully both get an opportunity pretty early on in the season."

Ricky Petterd says he is relishing playing as a defender at Richmond.

"It's rejuvenated me, just to start fresh and it's been a new challenge for me to learn their structures after playing forward for four or five years," Petterd said.


"It's something I've missed when I went a bit stale up forward and it's good to be running off half-back again."

Tigers midfield coach midfield coach Danny Daly says Richmond recruit and rookie Ricky Petterd has impressed since crossing over from Melbourne.

"We thought about what role might be best for him and we thought about a wing role, and someone mentioned he played a lot of footy across half back as a junior," Daly said.

"We've tried him down there and the two games we've had so far, he's probably been our best player, to be honest.

"He's putting his hand up to be elevated to the senior list and he'll play across half back on Friday night and all things going well, he's giving himself every opportunity to be upgraded."

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick says recruit Ricky Petterd's versatility at both ends of the ground will be an asset for the Tigers.

"He's been really impressive in the drills we've done," Hardwick said.

"Earlier in his career he played down back and he played quite well so we're certainly looking forward to seeing how he goes down there.

"We think he can add something, he's a good height, he's a versatile type player and we think he'll be a solid contributor for us."

Ricky Petterd is picked up by Richmond in the rookie draft.

"In the first few weeks, I spent the whole time getting my body right so then I could start training," Petterd said.

"I've had a couple of good mates who are personnel trainers and fitness fanatics so they've been taking me training, which is great.

"When you get delisted from a club, you've got a lot to prove and that's what I wanted to do."

Ricky Petterd will join Richmond training and says he is prepared to accept a rookie contract to keep his career alive.

"If a rookie spot became available somewhere, I would be stoked," he said.

"I would have that year to prove myself and fit in, and try to go from there."

Delisted Melbourne forward Ricky Petterd is determined to resurrect his AFL career elsewhere.

"I am a realist, and I understand that clubs can only hold onto people with the injuries I've had for a certain amount of time," Petterd said.

"But … I'm just hoping that someone takes a chance, because I've definitely got a lot of good football in front of me."

Melbourne has added to its list of trade departures, cutting a swathe of players which include Matthew Bate, Ricky Petterd, Jamie Bennell, Lucas Cook, Liam Jurrah and rookies Jai Sheahan, Leigh Williams and Kelvin Lawrence.

Melbourne's Ricky Petterd will go for surgery this week on an Achilles injury that has ended his 2012 campaign.

"It has been decided that the best course of action is to operate," Melbourne football manager Josh Mahoney said.

"This will occur this week, giving Ricky the best chance to recover without it affecting his pre-season."

Ricky Petterd's career has been dogged by injury, including nearly losing his life in 2007, but says he is gaining more confidence in his body this year.

"There were a lot of times in previous years I was getting brought out of training for being sore or having something tight," Petterd said.

"My body is a lot better this year and I'm able to get through those time trials and intraclub games with no worries. That gives me a lot of confidence."

Ricky Petterd says he has accepted an apology from West Coast's Patrick McGinnity.

"From all reports, he's a really good fella and it was in the heat of the moment and he said something wrong and he knows he shouldn't have. Apology has accepted," Petterd said.

"It was during the game, so it was a pretty heated argument. It's something that I reckon he'll regret and I'll regret being a part of, but it's part of footy."

Melbourne players Ricky Petterd, Brad Green, Colin Sylvia, James Frawley, Nathan Jones, and Jack Watts may be questioned by the AFL after using twitter to express their frustrations at teammate Jack Trengove being suspended for three weeks after a reckless tackle on Crow Patrick Dangerfield.

The playing future of Melbourne forward Russell Robertson remains unclear beyond this year.

"Robbo is an interesting one. His form was OK in the last couple of weeks and all of a sudden you see some opportunities being given to Petterd, Jurrah and Matthew Bate has been reasonably consistent," Melbourne coach Dean Bailey said.

"At the end of the year, we'll sit down and discuss our list management and I'm sure there'll be lots of players discussed and he'll be one of them."

Melbourne youngster Ricky Petterd says he is relishing the opportunity to play up forward, despite being a noted half-back/midfielder.

Petterd played just his 12th AFL match in Melbourne's 34-point loss to North Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday. After two injury-riddled seasons with the Demons, he impressed inside 50 with a classy checkside goal and 16 touches.

"I like it a lot. It's challenging in a way with the set-ups. I missed doing the punch instead of the mark, but I enjoy it," Petterd said.