IT ORIGINALLY came out of necessity.

But Brodie Kemp expects to be playing a fair bit more in the forward line in 2025. And he’s mighty glad to be doing it in Navy Blue.

The period between August and October was, self-admittedly, an “interesting one” for Kemp. It all began in the trip to Perth, when the Blues identified early in the week that Kemp was their man to lead the attack following injuries to Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow.

His final three games of the year were up forward. The first yielded four games in a memorable showing against the Eagles, while he reprised the role against St Kilda in Round 24 and partnered the returning Harry McKay in the elimination final against Brisbane.

It laid the groundwork for a potential permanent position switch for a player who has always prided himself on his versatility, with track watchers on Wednesday observing Kemp with the forward group.

So it was only fitting that this interview with Carlton Media took place in the forward line meeting room.

“It is my new home, yes. It was weird how it happened with the injuries we had, but when I went up forward and it was a new look, it was something that me and the coaches thought we could work with. Here we are in my sixth pre-season,” Kemp said.

“I’ve always been open - even in my juniors - to change positions, whether that’s from year-to-year or even in-game. I’ve always wanted it to be a strength of mine, and it’s an exciting group we have up there.

“It’s a chaotic group, but an organised chaos. I’m hoping to bring a bit of the backman’s demeanour in being a bit more chill and maybe even out the chaos a little bit - at the same time, I could turn into one of them pretty quickly.”

With only one of those games he played being alongside McKay, with Curnow unavailable for the end of the season, Kemp will spend his pre-season driven to make a forward line work where he could be the third foil to the two keys.

It’s a change up for the 23-year-old, who has spent large chunks of past pre-seasons lining up as a direct opponent of the two of them in training.

But with a potentially new-look Carlton attacking mix on the horizon, Kemp is aware of exactly what he needs to go after to put his best foot… forward.

“Now I’m locking into it, there are things you can pick their brain with. It’ll be nice to not have the biggest defender, which I did when they weren’t out there - they’ll go to the other two, so I might find myself getting some different looks.

“Harry and Charlie are obviously incredible air presences, and probably the hardest match-ups you’re going to get in the league as well as Jesse Hogan, so I’ve learned a lot from them just by training against them. What I’m excited about is hopefully having the opportunity to compete in the air, but then also apply pressure and get busy on ground level.

“That’s something that excites me, in that hybrid role. The change for me will be getting a bit leaner - not being as heavy as I needed to be if I was playing key position - and prioritising being more dynamic and explosive. That’s what I’ve gone to work on.”

As Kemp’s 2025 begins to take shape, it’d be remiss not to mention that time in October where things could’ve changed in an instant.

It was a new experience for Kemp, with the rumour mill running rampant in the final 24 hours of the Telstra Trade Period of a potential move to Moorabbin. Having always flagged his interest in staying, things didn’t get to a point where Kemp had a decision to make - but there was one moment that had him sweating.

“It was a weird time and came out of nowhere in some respects. It does open your eyes, but I definitely don’t look back and wish it did or didn’t happen: I’m glad things panned out the way they did.

“Having never really been through that before, I wasn’t sure what was going on. My mum had come out of surgery and we were sitting in her hospital bed: in the last two minutes, I saw ‘Ozzie’ and Stephen Silvagni at the bench. I was like ‘oh, maybe it’s gone through and I’m going to be at St Kilda?’. I just didn’t know how it worked, so that was interesting.

“Turns out they were actually just in there in the four-way deal for Matt Kennedy with all of those moving pieces, but for a second I was like ‘oh, this could be me’. I was getting real nervous but my manager gave me a call saying it wasn’t ever really close, and had a chat to ‘Ozzie’ afterwards that they were keen to keep me.

“In a way, I walked away feeling good. It’s nice to feel valued, that Carlton saw me being a key contributor to the team and wanted to hold me. Yeah, it was a weird experience, but one that worked out really well in the end.”

With that now behind him, it’s clear where Kemp’s focus lies heading into the new year. And there’s a conversation with Michael Voss that he’s particularly keen to pick up soon.

“I’m looking forward to having a one-on-one chat with him. It won’t be about footy or my position or how I’m going, nothing like that - it’ll just be about his time at Tottenham.

“When I saw him on the Optus Sport highlights, I was thinking about giving him a call - I realised pretty quickly he’s probably pretty busy."