A NOD to the past, a look to the future.
In the upcoming Heritage Game for Carlton, the Blues will be paying homage to those who came before them, wearing a blue-collared guernsey and donning the old AFL, Hyundai and Puma logos on the front.
Defender Jacob Weitering admitted it’s always an exciting opportunity when they can acknowledge past players, many of whom are still actively involved with the Club to date.
Taking part in a high-profile photoshoot with some champion former players - including the elusive Bruce Doull - to launch the Heritage guernsey, Weitering mused on what it means to pull on the jumper that means so much to many people.
“The day with the past players and the shoot was terrific – I got to meet Bruce Doull for the first time, he’s a very hard man to get hold of,” Weitering said.
“The humility of the older crop of guys, 16 premierships is nothing to laugh at. It’s an incredible achievement and for us as players, we look up to that, respect that and really admire how they went about it.
“Hopefully we can write our own pages in history going forward.”
Speaking with David Rhys-Jones (1987 Norm Smith Medallist and Carlton Hall of Fame member) and the team on AFL 360, Weitering admitted that the Blues’ glory days may have taken place before he was born, but he was no stranger to the stories of the premiership teams they were trying to emulate.
“That was a fantastic team, 1987, 1995. I myself was born in 1997, but I’ve heard a lot about the Blues back in 1987, the way they went about it and then the consistency and the way they were able to get back in there and do the job in 1995.”
Rhys-Jones lauded Weitering for the way he plies his craft, mentioning the full-back "should be All Australian".
The former Carlton great is riding the wave with the players and fans, as are many of the past players who regularly attend games to cheer on the Navy Blue.
“Like most supporters, you ride the good and the bad with the players – we see the potential in the players,” Rhys-Jones said.
“We just hope that they can achieve what we were lucky enough to do in our day, it’ll be great for the Club and for these guys.”
Looking to move on from the Collingwood loss on Saturday night, Weitering said that he noticed a massive shift after the siren from the team that fell to the Pies in Round 23 of 2022.
Referencing the camaraderie and the passion that the team shows for the jumper and their teammates, the co-vice captain was pleased that - despite the result - some confidence will come out of the loss to the old enemy.
“You’d be silly not to learn from past mistakes and two years ago, [Collingwood] also broke our hearts in that Round 23 game where we needed to draw or win and we’d make finals. You saw the reaction of the boys [in 2022], we were on the ground, we were isolated,” Weitering said.
“If you watch behind the goals after the game [on Saturday], you probably wouldn’t know who won the game.
“That was something that we looked at today in the review. Games do come down to a kick occasionally and we didn’t execute on the day, but the ability for the boys to get around 'Gov' and understand that many moments led up to that – I was really proud and ‘Vossy’ was too.
“We can take great confidence out of that and probably hurts a bit more that it was against the Pies, but going into the next three weeks, we have great confidence.”
