If ever a young bloke reflected Carlton’s exhilarating future and where it is heading then it's surely the Blues’ bubbly new recruit Lachlan Henderson.
With the Henderson kid’s move to Visy Park, in a trade that sees Carlton also gain selection 12 in exchange for Brendan Fevola and selection 27, Carlton now boasts nine top ten first round national draft selections - in alphabetical order Bryce Gibbs, Henderson, Chris Judd, Matthew Kreuzer, Brock McLean, Marc Murphy, Jordan Russell, Andrew Walker and Chris Yarran.
That impressive statistic was not lost on the 19 year-old Henderson, who in his first exclusive interview as a Carlton footballer told carltonfc.com.au that he was champing at the bit in expectation of being part of the mix.
“This is very exciting. I get to play with names like Murphy, Gibbs and Judd,” said Henderson, who will front for Carlton’s pre-season campaign when it commences in November.
“I’m born and raised in Victoria and I have all my friends and family here, so it’s nice to come back. I’m leaving a few friends up in Brisbane, which is always sad, but I’m really looking forward to the move to Carlton. It’s going to be really great.”
It was a big day for Henderson, who met briefly with Brett Ratten at Visy Park before learning that the Fevola trade was completed before the 2pm deadline.
“It all happened last night,” he said. “I got a call from Ricky [player manager Ricky Nixon] to say that it might happen and I got through it all this morning,” he said.
“There was nothing really specific discussed with Brett, but he did tell me a little bit about Carlton and where it was heading, and I told him a little bit about myself and what I was going through.”
In 2007, in a year in which he completed his VCE studies, Henderson suffered a broken fibula. But in allaying fears, he stressed the fibula was not his weight-bearing bone, “there’s nothing wrong with it, the body’s fine and I’m ready to go in the pre-season”.
Initially Henderson turned out up forward for Brisbane, but was thrown into defence by Michal Voss “to develop as a backman”.
“I played seven games this year and every single one of them was down back,” he said. “I do see myself as a forward, which is where I played all through my junior days, but I learnt a lot from that that stint up the back.”
Born and raised as a Collingwood supporter “because Dad got to me early”, Henderson is in no doubt that his father will follow him in switching allegiances from the Magpies, to the Lions and now, to the old dark Navy Blues. As he said no doubt Dad will turn”.
And to the many fully-committed Carlton supporters who continue to loyally serve, Henderson made this pledge.
“All I can say is that I’ll be out there trying my best. Pre-season will be where I set it up, and hopefully I can play down forward and kick some goals. That’s the plan and we’ll see how it goes.
