SOMETIMES, it’s the little things in life.

Despite what September might’ve suggested, it wasn’t always fun to be associated with Carlton in the middle portion of the season, with a ‘storm on the outside’ during a barren run of form.

But that didn’t stop Blues from trying to bring the joy and the laughs to the working environment.

One of those players was Matthew Kennedy, with the popular midfielder doing his best to brings smile to faces at IKON Park in a difficult time.

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You’d be a hard-pressed to find a more joyous person than Carlton’s No.7, who didn’t let a potentially season-ending knee injury in Round 17 dampen his spirits.

How did he do that? As AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss explained, he was self-appointed “in charge of joy”.

“He’d bring his terrible gags and brought life, creativity and joy into what we were doing. It sounds really simple, but it was really effective,” Voss said.

“He took that on and the boys loved it, they looked forward to it. It’s little things like that: it’s not just one thing, I could write a list of 15-20 things.”

Voss lauded the accountability of his players in season 2023 for their capacity to steer the Blues out of adversity, and it wasn’t just the official leadership group that assumed that mantle.

Alongside Patrick Cripps, Sam Walsh and Jacob Weitering - plus Sam Docherty “beavering away in the background” - was a group of emerging leaders that helped the Blues right the ship.

What came with that was a shift in focus on the field, with a focus on not only playing your own role, but helping someone else do theirs.

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“Adam Cerra, Matthew Kennedy, ‘Pitto’ was involved, Harry as well. There’s been a lot more leadership density, which is great.

“That group grew and they played a really important role in that period of time.

“We shared the load through the midfield a lot more than what we had . . . the role players that came in our forward half, it clearly changed shape. 

“We’ll continue to grow on that, because the more we have those players out there, the better the team we’re going to become.”