JOHN Cerra feels like Adam and the family have been mainstays at IKON Park for a long time.
And yet he still feels as though his son’s 50 games in Navy Blue has “come around really quick”.
“It happened quickly, but I also feel like we’ve been at Carlton forever, even though it’s just his third year,” John said on Saturday.
“We don’t hear any bad things about it, which is great. His mum and I, his sister, his partner, his friends, we love it here too.
“He’s very settled here.”
Cerra arrived at IKON Park at the end of 2021, arriving from Fremantle with 76 games of experience at the elite level. The midfielder hit the ground running from the off, receiving three Brownlow votes in his first game and emerging in 2023 as one of the Blues’ prime movers in the middle.
In a time where the Blues were struggling throughout the 2023 campaign, Cerra wasn’t. He was the clubhouse leader for the John Nicholls Medal until an injury setback with his hamstring cost him games in the run-in towards finals.
Cerra returned for September, and he produced some telling moments: the goal against Sydney in the third quarter of the elimination final at a pivotal time, plus the smother on Jake Lever with seconds remaining to ensure the Blues would progress to their first preliminary final in 2000.
It hasn’t all been easy in 2024, with a pair of hamstring injuries thwarting him from getting a constant run at it — but as dad John told Carlton Media, there was nobody better placed with their preparation than his son.
A family trip to Europe after his first year in Navy Blue proved exactly that.
Giovanni Cerra doesn't need an excuse to kick the footy with his son, Adam. 🥹
— Carlton FC (@CarltonFC) December 13, 2022
“I always knew he had a lot of commitment to his footy, and he wasn’t going to allow a family Europe trip to interrupt his training regime!
“Adam came with us when we went to Europe a couple of years ago, and with his program he needed to train every second day. I don’t know how, but he found the places to do it, and he asked me to be his training partner: I was so happy about that.
“He took us to places I’d never seen before! To train in Rome outside the Stadio Olimpico on the athletic track was absolutely amazing, and then he took us to different places in London and Paris, they were amazing places to train. We had a great time!”
While he was happy to pull on the boots for his son’s football on the other side of the world, John preferred to be merely an onlooker at the 2024 Dads Day when the players’ fathers were invited to head down to training in the lead-up to the clash with North Melbourne.
"It’s a Club that provides a lot of opportunity for grey-haired guys like myself to see their son have a lot of fun playing footy.”
— Carlton FC (@CarltonFC) July 20, 2024
"They're just a bunch of big kids!"
Always one of the great days on the IKON Park calendar: the dads took over at training 💙
He was happy to let the likes of Brad Cripps, Wayne Walsh, Dave Curnow and Jason Boyd strut their stuff.
“I’m a little bit too old to do that! Jason is one of our favourites.
“Every Dads Day at Carlton is great. To spend time with all the other dads over something to eat and have a chat, but also to be able to see what the boys go through . . . we might not understand a lot of what is said in the team meetings, but they’re all interesting!”
