A JOURNEY of a lifetime.
It wasn’t long ago that a fresh-faced Jacob Weitering donned the Navy Blue for the first time as the No.1 draft pick in 2016, but now, the defender is looking ahead to his 150th outing on Saturday afternoon against Port Adelaide.
The forward-turned-defender has faced some tumultuous times throughout his career but feels like his feet are firmly on the ground now and has some great times ahead to look forward to.
“I don’t know my win percentage in those 150 games, but it’s definitely not in the positive,” Weitering said.
“Hopefully, I can turn that around going forward and that’s just what we want to do.”
The co-vice captain said he hasn’t been getting too wrapped up in the Blues' last month, noting that he expects those kinds of performances every week.
While an uptick in the win column has been the result, Weitering thought the team has been building towards something bigger for some time now, referencing a notable increase in tackle pressure and scoring.
“I wouldn’t say [I was] impressed, it was sort of expected,” he said.
“We’ve been building a fair bit - the losing streak wasn’t ideal for us but to be honest - but the mood didn’t really change, the attitude of the boys, the training standards, we were just chipping away week by week and unfortunately we weren’t getting the results.
“Our tackle numbers were down so we wanted to bring up the pressure a little bit and put a score on the board.”
Despite whatever outside noise may have been coming their way, Weitering was clear that there was never any doubt about Senior Coach Michael Voss’ methods and the way he was motivating the group.
Weitering was emphatic noting the leaders of the group felt the pressure to take onus on themselves to bring the group back to positive form.
“For the playing group, ‘Vossy’ was always the man, we have complete trust in him to do a job for us and we’ve got complete faith in the game plan”, he said.
“We as a leadership group and a playing group just wanted to back him in and he did the same for us and we’re slowly rewarding him with some wins.”
Personnel issues have been less than ideal over the last two seasons for the Blues, but now the team is starting to find some consistency in the lineup and implementing a strong ‘next-man up' mentality.
With the likes of Jack Silvagni and Lewis Young in the ruck and Brodie Kemp putting his body on the line in defence, Weitering lauded his teammates for coming in and playing a role – no matter the position or circumstances.
Being able to build strong synergy with the same players week in and week out has been a big positive for Weitering, who is relishing the chance to get back to what he does best in the defensive 50.
“We’ve had some role players come in like Lewis Young and Jack Silvagni, just doing their job for us and it’s been really good,” he said.
“Brodie Kemp, he’s probably a bit undersized to be playing a key position but he’s certainly held his own the last four weeks.
“Mitch McGovern is playing consistent football, guys like Jordan Boyd and Alex Cincotta who people didn’t really know much until they came into the side and they’re doing an unbelievable job for us – I’m really proud of the backline and they’re standing tall.”
Looking ahead to the challenge that is taking on an in-form Port Adelaide, Weitering said the team were relishing the prospect of coming up against one of the league’s best teams.
Whilst the prospect is daunting, the defender was more excited for the match-up rather than nervous, looking forward to putting their recent form to the test against the Power’s 13-game winning streak.
“I think most football clubs would say this but I truly believe our best can beat anyone and it’s going to be a massive challenge against Port Adelaide,” he said
“They’re the in-form side in the competition, they’re very strong across every line and the boys are definitely looking forward to the challenge.
“We’ve been building over the last month and I think it’s come at a good time to play a side like this.”
