IN HIS first official pre-season as a forward, Brodie Kemp may have thought his time shadowing Jacob Weitering was a thing of the past.

Having worked closely with the co-vice captain and reigning All-Australian defender, Kemp’s shift to the other end was confirmed in the very early stages of the Blues’ pre-season.

But when Kemp was tasked with the role of a defensive forward against Weitering during Monday’s match simulation, he was once again in extremely close proximity to the player who had provided him more advice than anyone in his first five seasons as a defender.

As he told Triple M Rush Hour on Wednesday, it was a matter of trying to add more strings to his bow ahead of the upcoming campaign.

“We were trialing a few things, I was playing a defensive role on ‘Weiters’. It gave me a new look, and gave ‘Weiters’ and the backline on how to deal with it. It was good, it was nice to lock in on the role.”

Kemp spoke to Carlton Media in his first official week back of pre-season about his new role in attack, having had a brief stint there out of necessity when both Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay were unavailable in the final fortnight of the home-and-away campaign.

So while he’s hard at work when it comes to his role up forward, he’s more than happy to keep his options open to perform whatever his team needs throughout the 2025 campaign.

“At this stage, you’ll be seeing me as a forward to start the year. That’s always subject to change in any team in any position, where you might have to play elsewhere.

“But [currently] my role has been as a forward.”

He was particularly thankful for that on Monday, going from a fellow forward counterpart of Harry McKay’s compared to being a direct opponent as he has in previous years.

“Harry had a really big day in three quarters, I reckon he kicked eight goals or something. Thank God it’s the one pre-season I’m not lining up on Harry or Charlie in match sim.

“I’ll probably say the standout so far in terms of training, the condition he’s come back and running PBs is Jesse Motlop - he’s looking really good. ‘Weiters’ as well, he’s 10 or 11 years in but he’s lifting and running PBs and primed for another really big year.

“I wouldn’t say it’s now or never - but I think we’re in a really good position. We’re pretty clear on the expectations we have externally, but also where we see us and what we want to achieve in this period of time.”