Carlton fans had further reason to smile on Saturday, with Carlton vice-captain Michael Jamison make a successful return from a calf injury via the VFL in the Northern Blues’ win over Werribee at Ikon Park.
Jamison had not played since Carlton’s first win back in Round 4 when the Blues triumphed over St Kilda in Wellington.
In his first competitive match after a two-month lay off and his first VFL match since 2012, Jamison finished with nine disposals, two marks and conceded just one goal on VFL leading goalkicker Majak Daw, in around 65 per cent match time.
“The body felt great. I was hoping to play a bit longer, but the fitness staff had me at pegged at a certain number of kilometres and I hit that a bit early,” Jamison said.
“I had to come off in the last couple of minutes, but it was good to have a win.
“They (Werribee) had nothing to lose in the last quarter and came streaming in, but we’ve got some pretty experienced guys down back, (Northern Blues vice-captain) Kieran McGuinness … and the younger boys settled down and made sure we kept our composure.”
With the club emerging from one of the toughest month’s it has had to endure recent times, Jamison has somewhat escaped the on-field spotlight, forced to focus on his rehabilitation.
As a leader of the club, not being able to have input on the club’s fortunes was “frustrating”, but he said there had been positives to take out of his time away from playing.
“It has been tough; you always want to be on the field when things aren’t going so well to give your teammates a chop out,” he said.
“I have been able to use the time to watch a lot of the Northern Blues games and spend a bit more time with the younger players, which you can’t always do when you’re playing seniors.
“I’ve looked at that as a positive.”
Jamison’s impressive return now has him earmarked as a possible return for Carlton when it hosts Gold Coast at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
There is also the possibility that the defender could still be at Etihad on Sunday, but in the game beforehand with the VFL Blues taking on Frankston in the second curtain-raiser of the season.
The vice captain said the decision will remain up to the fitness and coaching staff.
“The focus is on me to just recover, I’ll speak to the senior coaches (through the week),” Jamison said.
“They obviously had a fantastic win on Saturday too. It was a great day, a deserved day for the club after all that’s gone past, so we’ll enjoy that.”
