IF YOU conducted a straw poll amongst Carlton’s playing group for diligence and attention to detail in preparation, there’d be two popular teammates towards the very top of the pile.

One would be Harry McKay, and the other is Adam Cerra.

It’s why the way 2024 panned out was - in his own words - “extremely frustrating” for the Navy Blue No.5.

Cerra entered the 2024 campaign - his seventh in the AFL, and third in Navy Blue - primed to take his game to another level. His 2023 season was unmistakably his best to date, highly fancied to take home the John Nicholls Medal before an untimely hamstring strain sidelined him for a month in the season’s backend.

He returned and produced some crucial moments in that year’s memorable finals campaign: the goal from the pocket against Sydney in the elimination final immediately springs to mind, while his smother in the final seconds of that semi final against Melbourne was an understated, underrated moment in the chaos of the remaining seconds.

Yet Cerra was unable to replicate that this year, with his body failing him. So, in close collaboration with the Club, Cerra went looking for answers.

“For me, the project of 2025 started as soon as the off-season started,” Cerra told Carlton Media in a sit-down interview.

“It’s been well-documented: I was super grateful for the Club letting me go overseas for an intensive training week in Doha, at a sports hospital called Aspetar. It’s an incredible facility, unlimited resources, seeing specialists and trying to find more answers to get on top of the struggles I had this year.

“They really push you and challenge you and try to find the deficits in your body, what happens when it starts to fail. We were able to find out a lot, which was super pleasing, and it has found areas for me to work on physically.”

Heading over with one of the Club’s physios in Will Tardif, Cerra spoke about not only the intense twice-a-day training sessions - only broken up by an hour-long lunch break - which left him “absolutely wrecked”, but also the data analysis and testing machines which painted a picture of where his body was at physically, plus the areas to grow.

He knows the Doha venture won’t be the be-all-and-end-all, but he is hoping that it’s a turning point to get the best out of himself consistently.

The lessons from the fact-finding mission will - in conjunction with Tardif and the Club’s high performance team - continue to guide his program and preparations.

“I was super grateful for Will to come on the trip with me: he’s been able to translate what we found back into my program. He was also able to translate the medical jargon into simple English for me… that certainly helped.

“It’ll be part of my routine to constantly stay on top of those things, with the hope to completely eradicate them. A lot of hard work went into that one week, but I’m hoping we get a lot of benefit out of it, to stay more durable and consistent to play a full season for the Club.

“Fingers crossed I play a full season. And even if I do, I’d still love to go back to use the resources and continue to build my body and play a full career.”

With 129 games under his belt, the annoyance in Cerra’s voice is evident when speaking about the ones he’s missed.

When looking ahead to next year, Carlton supporters would be inclined to think of what the midfield group would look like adding in the 2023 version of Cerra into the line-up. But he himself doesn’t want that season to be seen as him being at the peak of his powers - rather, just his best year so far.

“That 2023 year I could certainly feel my potential at the level - but I still wasn’t satisfied. I always want to grow as a player and as a teammate.

“I’ve got a level of footy I want to reach and believe I can reach, but I’ve got to focus on the week to week and doing the work, as cliche as that sounds. I’m no help in a season like the one just gone, when I’m in and out of games due to injury.

“At the end of the day, we all have the same goal and dream of trying to win it all, and we all play a part in that. For me, it’s nailing the durability of my body and making myself available for 23-plus games in a year, to give me the best chance of playing the footy I know I can play for this footy club.”

Above all, as Cerra and the Blues hope to get the very best out of themselves and others, there’s one key piece of advice that is consistently being driven by the skipper to never lose sight of.

Under the uber-optimist that is Patrick Cripps, Cerra knows that while there’s plenty of hard work that goes into it, and while there’s clearly been a fair share of frustration along the way, the enjoyment factor simply cannot be thrown by the wayside.

“We always talk about our purpose and why we play - it’s easy to forget your 12-year-old self, playing footy and the reasons why. It’s playing with your mates, it’s wanting to compete.

“The stakes are obviously much higher at this level, but as much as you can keep that joy, we all believe the better footy you’ll play. You’ll play with more freedom, you play on instinct - we should be fun and exciting to watch, and it should be fun and exciting to be out there.

“‘Crippa’ is a great person in leading that: we work extremely hard, absolutely, but we’ve got to bring the joy to the game.”

Here’s to the good times.