TO START the season, Jacob Weitering thought his form line was “reasonably solid”.
But there was a game in particular that left a sour taste in his mouth from a personal perspective: Round 10 against Collingwood. On that day, Brody Mihocek kicked four, Weitering had eight disposals and the Blues found themselves 44 points down in the second term on the way to a five-goal defeat.
By his own admission, Weitering felt it was his worst game of the year — “by far”. But it’s the mark of the man that since then, the co-vice captain’s performances have been exemplary.
And it was against that very opponent who Weitering starred against on the weekend, keeping Mihocek goalless on this occasion while accumulating 18 disposals, six intercept marks and nine rebound 50s.
From shutting down his direct opponent to being damaging with ball in hand to intercepting in the defensive half, Weitering’s form since then has been as good as any key defender in the competition. He sits second for intercept marks in the last 10 weeks, taking 41 in the last nine games compared to 23 in the preceding 10.
He also hasn't lost a one-on-one contest in the last month, according to Champion Data, winning 10 of them and halving the other four.
When speaking to SEN’s Crunch Time on Saturday, Weitering said his uptick has come from a shift in mindset symptomatic of the entire team.
“For me personally, I wasn’t leading or playing to the best of my ability. Especially as a leader, you don’t want to let your teammates down,” Weitering said.
“I was more worried about my opponent, and it’s very easy to get into that mindset as a defender when things aren’t going well. There’s a quote from Aaron Hamill where he says ‘it’s not your man, it’s our man’: it’s about supporting each other.
“It was focusing my attention on them, making them a better teammate and a better player, rather than focusing on my own game. That has definitely helped my personally, as well as the leaders: by focusing on other things and on the team, it has really helped our own game.”
In his post-match press conference on Friday night, Michael Voss alluded to the ‘tough conversations’ that were taking place when the Blues simply weren’t getting the job done on the field, and how the leaders of the football club “didn’t blink” on the way to accepting the feedback and rectifying things.
Without giving too much away, Weitering did shed a bit more light on them, crediting the AFL Senior Coach for not only his communication, but his commitment and dedication in steering the ship.
“‘Vossy’ led the way. Some of the conversations were tough, I didn’t like some of it — but [what was said] was true. You’ve got to praise his leadership and the way he has gone about it.
“The boys definitely took it on board and it showed the maturity of the leaders and the playing group to get better . . . I can’t give away too much more detail than that!”
"The players wanted that moment. It's hard to describe, but the energy was just that they were really looking forward to it.
— Carlton FC (@CarltonFC) July 28, 2023
"We've got to keep chasing."
Michael Voss, 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡.
Another mark of Carlton’s growth and maturity on Friday night came in the final term. Tasked with a very similar assignment to the scenes of Round 23, the Blues held on against the old enemy, despite the ladder leaders giving it their all.
The ability for his side to withstand the punches thrown was a key moment for an honest Weitering, who conceded “in the past, we’ve crumbled under that pressure”.
“Even in the last two years, we’ve had momentum swings both ways for us, which has either been an issue or a really good part of our game. They’re learning opportunities, and there’s no point in them if you don’t grow: that’s what ‘Vossy’ spoke about at half time and three-quarter time,” he said.
“It was all in the back of our minds . . . we wanted to focus on ourselves and had complete belief in the system and the way we were playing.
“We were up by about 36 points at one stage. We were about to get into our defensive huddle and ‘Gov’ said ‘put a smile on your face’. I wasn’t putting a smile on my face until we got the job done!
“We’re proud of our efforts, but at the same time, we’ve still got a fair job to do in the back-end. We know what our last month looked like last year: percentage and the little things matter, so we’ll be focusing on St Kilda and making sure we get a job done there.”
