NOW RECOVERING from recent shoulder surgery, Jacob Weitering provided the latest ahead of his stint on the sidelines.
Speaking on SEN's Whateley, Weitering is confident that his side will forge forward without him, with the emergence of Lewis Young being a very handy addition to the backline and the return of Caleb Marchbank to the senior fold.
Here's what he had to say.
On surgery:
"It's been eight days post-surgery. I'm on the mend so far on some painkillers and today that's really feeling pretty good.
"It's actually my first football career surgery that I've had in my seven years in the system, so it's a little bit new to me. I'm starting to get some range already, starting to move it around a little bit and hopefully in a week or so I can get back and start doing some physical activity."
On the next-man-up mentality:
"The [midfielders] have been doing a superb job at winning our centre clearances, winning contested ball - that's certainly a strength of ours - and having just Charlie up there as well against some quality key defenders was also going to be a struggle [plus] then to leave 'Youngy' one out on Mason Cox and Mihocek.
"In my view, it's probably never ideal but you've got to give the boys credit: it probably wasn't our game to win, it certainly didn't look like that. But we were in a position to win it, Jack's shot on goal with a minute to go was an example of that."
On potential backline replacements, Caleb Marchbank and feel-good stories:
"Lewis Young is going to have a big job on his hands for the next four or five weeks, but he’s in really good shape to step up and take that role against the best key forward each week.
"Caleb Marchbank coming back after three years... 2019 was his last game of football and he's been through the ringer. He's had some very, very strange injuries.
"To watch him down at Frankston three or four weeks ago, come back for his first VFL game. Probably half the group went down to Frankston and watched him, everybody else watched a livestream.
"It's really exciting times to get guys like that and that's sort of the storyline. We've had some moments across the year like Sam Docherty coming back in Round 1, like Charlie Curnow coming back in and he's having a super season. It was almost like he never left and Caleb's in that same boat, so I'm really looking forward to seeing him on Friday night and it's going to be an awesome atmosphere for him."
On the rivalry games:
"If you look at the next few games we have got, it's probably a little bit like the boy in me. I was very excited to play against Collingwood, Essendon at the ’G, Richmond at the ’G with some big crowds, some big rivalry matches and obviously we're playing some good football at the moment.
"We could really set ourselves up for the next four or five weeks in terms of what our back end of the year looks like.
"So for me, I've just got to remain as positive as I can and make sure I handle this as well as I can.
"You've got to see it as a positive as well. I'll come back stronger and hopefully do a job for the team in the back half of the year."
