A STRANGE feeling, but full faith in the group.

As Jacob Weitering continues his rehabilitation from a calf injury which will see him sidelined for the at least the opening fortnight of the home-and-away season, the co-vice captain can't wait to see what his team can produce when it heads up to the Gabba this Friday night.

Back for his monthly spot on SEN's Whateley for another year, here's what Weitering had to say.

On not playing in the opening fortnight:

“It is a little bit strange. It’s going to be the first time I miss out on what is Opening Round this week, but also Round 1 against Richmond. It’s one of those things, players do go through long-term injuries and it’s my time to do that. 

“The boys have had a ripper pre-season. It’s been interesting to watch from afar, you can sit back and watch from a different lens. I’ve changed my position a little bit as a mentor and coach to try and help as much as I can and stay present, but the boys are raring to go. 

“The practice matches probably didn’t go our way from a results point of view, but we get to go up against a team that did a job on us in a prelim.”

On his approach to rehabilitation:

“The timeline was always the timeline in terms of being a 10-12 week injury. Initially I did think it was my Achilles, but the scans showed otherwise and I went to work on my rehab.

“It’s what you make of it. When it is a longer-term injury over that two-month mark, you can do one of two things: you can get away and get your mental state right and refresh, or you can try and stay as present as you can. For me, in the position I’m in and the motivation to get back as soon as possible, I wanted to stay as present as possible. 

“That’s making sure I get in, do all the stuff I need to do like my conditioning in the mornings so I’m available for meetings and available to go out on the track in the early days. It’s slow going early days, but once you get back on the track, you do see the light at the end of the tunnel. That’s been me on the track in the last three weeks, running and getting up to a decent pace. It’s progressing really well and as we wanted it to do.”

On his potential return date:

“Best case is North in Round 3. We obviously have the Lions this week and we come back and play on a six-day turnaround on Thursday, the big one at the ‘G. It’s a funny one because we do have that bye, which is probably a really good thing for me in that it gives me that extra week to prepare and build some more fitness and more capacity and hopefully allow me to come back and perform.”

On what’s different with the team in 2024:

“We mentioned it quite a bit post-Round 13 last year, when we started to get going from a wins point of view, that contest and pressure is certainly our identity. When we do bring that, I believe we can beat any team — I do know that’s a bit of a cliche, but I think our results in the back end of last year showed that with the way we played. 

“To bring that first and foremost, it’s something we’ll admit we lacked in the pre-season games. I think our second half against Melbourne was a real positive in the way we responded and we saw a little bit of what we were like in the back end of last year. There’s certainly some little changes you make, we’re trying to be a little more dynamic off turnover and you want to score more. 

“Our strength lies in contest and stoppages and defending the line. We know that we’re a team when we defend as one, we can put a team to the sword. The way the boys have trained has been unbelievable, some guys are looking really good and in line for some breakout seasons.”

On the need for consistency in-season:

“I didn’t need to rewatch it to gain any more motivation. A lot of people have called our run last year some different names and it was pretty special to be part of. The learnings and the growth that individuals, the team, the coaches and the Club showed in that period is terrific, but we have to be able to do it consistently. 

“Our next step is being consistent during the season. Our first year with ‘Vossy’, we were 8-2 going into the bye and we didn’t make finals and had a pretty heartbreaking end, and then we lose the prelim last year after everyone knows how our season panned out. The consistency in-season will hold us in good stead to hopefully get back to where we were.”

On Zac Williams’ return:

“Some boys deal with injuries in different ways, and sometimes there are controllables and other times there’s not. Zac has had some pretty tough situations go on in the last 12-16 months, and the way he’s been able to deal with those situations and still rehab to the best of his ability and put all of his time and effort into coming back and ready to perform, it’s been unbelievable. 

“You saw with the video the Club put out, I haven’t seen ‘Vossy’ get too emotional before, and that was one time where he certainly showed his softer side. It’s good, it’s authentic and that was shared throughout the room when the announcement was made. We’re incredibly proud of him.”

On whether he’ll make the flight up to Brisbane:

“I’m not unfortunately. It is a pretty important training block for me, and I would’ve loved to: I’ve been up in the coaches’ box the last time I was out with my shoulder a few years ago. I’ll be watching from home, which will be somewhat painful I feel. I’m not sure whether I’ll watch it alone or with my parents, I don’t commentate too much — I sit in silence. I’m sure the boys will be fine without me.”