Melbourne young gun Christian Petracca admits inconsistency is preventing him fully living up to his enormous AFL potential.
Arguably the Demons' most dangerous and exciting player, Petracca has nonetheless shown a tendency to drift in and out of games.
That is hardly unusual for a player in just his third season but the hype surrounding the 2014 No.2 draft pick, and the massive pressure on the Demons to finally break their 12-year finals drought, means scrutiny is inevitable.
The sixth-placed Demons are the AFL's highest-scoring team and have proven capable of terrorising opponents such as Adelaide, who they smashed by 91 points in round 10.
But consecutive losses to Collingwood and Port Adelaide have ensured many of the Demons' critics remain unconvinced, with Petracca below his best in both games.
The 22-year-old concedes his form has been patchy but is focused on meeting the expectations of coach Simon Goodwin ahead of living up to external hype.
"I'm not the player I want to be at the moment," Petracca told reporters on Wednesday.
"I want to be someone who has an impact in every game. At the moment I'm probably not doing that.
"All I want to focus on at the moment is just doing what Simon tells me to do, playing my role as a half-forward, putting a lot of pressure on ... stuff that probably doesn't get recognised (externally) but does get recognised inside the four walls."
The Demons remain in the hunt for a top-four finish and have a golden chance to get their campaign back on track on Sunday when they host 16th-placed St Kilda at the MCG.
Improving their ball movement will be a key for the Demons, who had 29 more inside-50s than the Power last week but still managed to lose by 10 points.
"It was pretty frustrating, looking back at the stats and realising we dominated the inside-50 count and contested possessions which we base our game off," Petracca said.
"That's the way we want to play every game ...we're going to win more often than not if we play like that every week."
Key forward Tom McDonald is in doubt for the Saints clash after copping a heavy bump which left him with a bruised lung.
