CHASING excellence.
Carlton returns to action this Sunday at the MCG against Melbourne, but despite claiming a four-point victory in Round 1 against Richmond, the Blues know they’re not the finished product.
Co-vice captain Jacob Weitering made clear that while the Blues were happy to take home the win, the team had spent their bye week adopting the lessons learned from the second half against the Tigers.
While not pretending that he didn’t hear some of the commentary about the nature of the victory, Weitering said the Blues - after an off-season of change - made it a focus to celebrate the wins when they come, despite being well aware of what is still a work in progress.
“‘Vossy’ did a wonderful job of keeping us looking forward and making sure we’re focusing on this year, the people we’ve got in, the new bits of the system we’ve been training, the energy and environment we’ve built,” Weitering said on SEN.
“Those second-half fadeouts in the first two rounds, we just need two or three games where we start really well in those second halves: then, all of a sudden, that narrative leaves us pretty quick.
“It’s a platform to build off. A win is a win - it didn’t look great, it was bloody ugly, but there was relief.”
That’s been the platform the team has used during their oddly timed Round 2 bye, which the Blues have dealt with for the second time in three seasons.
Weitering revealed the Blues approached it considerably differently to how they would with a normal mid-season bye, having a solid training session last Friday to maintain game intensity at this early stage of the year.
By the time the Blues run out on Sunday, it would have been 17 days since they were last in action against Richmond, yet move from Melbourne to North Melbourne in just five days during the lead-up to Good Friday.
“We had a three-day break after Richmond, but then we trained as per. We had a pretty decent hitout on Friday to make it game-like intensity, and then another two days off over the weekend.
“For the most part, the boys have had a pretty big month and a half… it was a good, quick mental refresh in this situation, but if you had to ask me if I’m a fan of it, I’d probably say no.”
What Weitering is mindful of is the nature of the timing for him personally.
While some would prefer to get into the consistent cut and thrust of the season, the two weeks between games has allowed the key defender to heal the rib injury sustained during Origin.
“In my case, it’s been a nicely timed break to make sure that the body is healing up,” he said.
“The ribs are good. The normal heal time is the 4-6 week mark, I’m certainly feeling a lot better in myself today than I was 2-3 weeks ago. Opening Round was certainly a test for it, but I got through.
“All I’ll say is it’s a more unusual spot to break a rib, which you’ve just got to deal with… how well I was looked after there, I couldn’t be more thankful.”
