YOU DON’T need to remind Nic Newman that he’s the elder statesman on the Carlton list.
Following the departure Ed Curnow at the end of 2023, Newman was very quickly made aware that he was the oldest player on the list, despite being 31 when the 2024 season came to a close.
What this summer is once again reminding Newman is that it’s not too late to learn some new tricks, with the defender the perfect example of that, producing back-to-back campaigns which have yielded runner-up spots in the John Nicholls Medal.
But there’s a new look to this pre-season for the Blues, and while it’s not completely dissimilar, there are some tangible differences for those fronting up for another pre-season - no matter at what stage of the footy journey the players are on.
Speaking to SEN on Friday morning, Newman mentioned one key part of the philosophy which the Blues are going after this summer.
“Sometimes it can be a bit daunting heading into a new off-season program, and I reckon after a few weeks I was thinking about retirement,” Newman joked.
“[New Head of High Performance Rob Inness] loves his speed sessions and his sprinting, it’s definitely been tough. It’s new ideas, new voices, a new philosophy on things. We all do such similar things at AFL clubs and you can only train so much, so it’s tweaking little things.
“We’ve brought in a bit more speed and power to our training, it’s been really good. It took a little bit of an adjustment during the off-season, but the guys are adapting to the program and some of the boys are looking pretty quick and powerful.”
That need for constant improvement is driving the Blues this pre-season, with Newman echoing Sam Walsh’s sentiments last week of the players in the 3-4 year bracket setting the standard from the outset in training - players such as Lachie Cowan, Jesse Motlop, Ollie Hollands, Jaxon Binns and the uncapped Harry Lemmey.
Following the audit of 2024, which showed the Blues’ best stacks up but their inconsistency in performance was costly, Newman said it would be no secret what the priorities would be for the entire team.
“In terms of where the improvement comes, there are a few areas we can get better. I think individually, those 3-4 year guys… you feel like they’re ready to step up and improve again.
“As a group, we felt we let ourselves down with our defending and we were a bit inconsistent. All the best teams in not just the AFL but world sport are usually pretty good defensively, and we were a bit too inconsistent in that. As a defender myself, it hurt the pride a little bit.
“It’s an area we’ll be going after pretty hard. We feel like we have a strong list and a hungry group that have come back in good shape and are ready to compete that wants to improve on last year. Going after our defence and contest is going to be a big one.”
