BACKING in the defensive brand.

Despite the rollercoaster of Carlton’s year so far, co-vice captain Jacob Weitering can take heart out of the fact that - bar a recent trip to Adelaide - the Blues’ profile behind the ball is stacking up.

The weekend was another example of not only Carlton’s new-look defensive group but overall system standing up, conceding just 62 points against St Kilda on the back of a summer where Michael Voss and his coaches stressed the need for consistency in defence.

It was the hallmark of Carlton’s resurgence in form in 2023: in that campaign, even before results started to turn, the Blues were depriving opposition teams of putting a score on the board.

Weitering is hoping for more of the same this year, with the Blues currently ranking third in the competition for points against after nine rounds.

“It was a reality that at 0-4, we weren’t putting a score on the board and we weren’t winning games of football. But if you looked at our profile around defence, I think only Collingwood is ahead of us in a lot of those key performance indicators,” Weitering said.

“We’re really happy with that and we’re defending really well as a team in all facets of the game, but we have to maintain the consistency of it. Adelaide wasn’t the result we were after, and that’s the one anomaly from a defensive point of view out of the year - if we continue to build on our offence and going inside 50 more efficiently, that’s going to be really promising for us in terms of the outlook for the end of the year.”

The improvements in Carlton’s defence can’t be put down to simply one thing, with the Blues ranking in the top four of the competition for pressure rating so far in 2025 while also seeing a number of changes in personnel to their defensive mix.

Outside of that defensive "anomaly" against Adelaide which the Blues have to be wary of, the Blues have conceded 70 points against in their other eight games.

Without two-time runner-up in the John Nicholls Medal Nic Newman out there, Weitering has turned to a newcomer to the Club plus a newcomer to the backline as two who have been rock solid alongside him, particularly over the course of the last month.

While there were questions over the Blues’ backline mix in the early part of the season, Weitering believes the group - led by assistant coach Aaron Hamill - is starting to seeing the rewards.

However, he’s well and truly aware of the work still ahead.

“There were probably [outside] calls on it not working: but the team, ‘Vossy’, the coaches and myself certainly had faith in the changes we’ve made, as well as the personnel we’ve got down there.

“You mention ‘SOS’ and ‘Haynesy’, they bring different strengths to the backline and it’s complementing all of us down there. I’m very happy we’re keeping teams to low scores, playing a really good brand of defensive football - that’s something you need to win premierships.

“Jack and I are in the deeper tier to take the taller guys, ‘Haynesy’s’ ability in that next layer to cut angles and intercept the ball, to know when to press forward or hold back and sit off his man… his intercept numbers are incredible, his marking is prime Haynes at the moment. He’s someone that came in probably thinking ‘am I still good enough?’ or ‘do I have a spot?’. I think he’s well and truly cemented himself.

“We were lacking in confidence in the first four games, which I think the Richmond game hurt us in that aspect. But we’ve got guys across all lines consistently performing well and the role players are doing their job.”

From an individual standpoint, Weitering is coming off a year where he received a long-overdue recognition as an All-Australian defender - but in terms of his personal form versus the team’s, it’s very clear where Weitering’s focus lies.

And he has leant on his long-time mate and captain as the perfect example.

“I don’t feel like I’ve been at my absolute best, I’ve had some good games from a numbers point of view.

“I use ‘Crippa’ as an example - his ability to take a backseat and allow guys like Adam Cerra, ‘Walshy’, ‘TDK’ in the ruck, Cooper Lord coming in - it empowers others to do what they need to do but you don’t need to go out and take your eight intercept marks and have 12 intercepts if ‘SOS’ is doing his role and ‘Haynesy’ is doing his role. If we do this as a unit, great things will come.

“My role is to take the best key forward and nullify their influence whilst winning contests and intercepting the ball here and there. At the moment, we’re working with a lot of synergy - I’m loving it.”