ONE THING stood out to Jacob Weitering in the aftermath of the loss to Sydney three weeks ago.
In what was the Blues’ second biggest loss under AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss since his appointment ahead of the 2022 season, it was clearly Carlton’s most disappointing performance of the campaign, unable to stick with the ladder leaders despite a brilliant start.
In the aftermath, the Blues had a key three-week block heading into the bye, with Gold Coast, Port Adelaide and Essendon in the offing.
The response of Voss stood out to Weitering, highlighting not only the growth of the coach, but also the improved maturity of the playing group in recent seasons.
“I’ll give the example of Sydney a few weeks ago. We clearly didn’t play the best football we wanted to and he gave the leaders a bit of a whack, but at the same time we felt he had an arm around us to get a job done the next week,” Weitering told Channel 7’s Talking Footy on Wednesday night.
“His composure and his ability to empower the group of players and coaches around him . . . that’s the best example I can give. He’s a leader of men.”
Weitering himself has formed a key part of Carlton’s leadership strategy in recent seasons, joining the leadership group heading into 2020 before being appointed as co-vice captain alongside Sam Walsh before the 2022 campaign. Charlie Curnow joined the two of them in support of captain Patrick Cripps this year.
From a leadership and culture standpoint, Weitering said the habits that have been established in recent seasons had formed the backbone of the Blues in recent years — and he and the wider playing group would continue to hold each other to account on the back of it.
“For us as a club and as a playing group, backing culture is pretty important. We’ve built that culture we’ve got and the behaviours and values we live by. ‘Crippa’ started it off with ‘Doc’ as co-captain.
“Myself, Charlie and Harry being in the same draft, we’re 26 years of age and still have a while to go. Hopefully we can all stick around, clearly the ultimate goal is to win premierships [together].
“The main man is ‘Crippa’. ‘Walshy’, myself and Charlie - who was voted in during the pre-season - will support him in whatever way he needs.”
