THERE’S every chance if/when Lachie Cowan sees this, he won’t exactly love it.

That’s despite the protestations of his close mate, Matthew Carroll.

“He acts like he hates the attention, but I’m sure he secretly loves it.”

That’s not true to form for the Carlton defender, who has much preferred to let his actions do the talking ever since his arrival at his boyhood club nearly four years and 51 AFL games ago.

But as the Blues’ winning run continues to catch the eye of the football world, Cowan’s individual form line is doing the exactly the same for those who watch Carlton closely.

A cult figure since game one when his first intercept mark was met with a ‘moo’ in front of nearly 90,000 people at the MCG, Cowan is playing the best football of his career in recent weeks.

Tasked with the roles on players from Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera to Jeremy Cameron to Toby Greene, Cowan has risen to the occasion and then some as a key piece of the puzzle in the Blues’ attempts to turn their year around.

In the eyes of long-term mentor Nic Newman, it has been partly due to one key factor.

“It’s natural maturity,” Newman told Carlton Media. “I’m speaking solely as a footballer here - I’ll separate the footballer from the mate. As a footballer, he’s got a way to go,” he adds with a laugh.

“He’s had a very good year and has been somewhat underrated I think. He’s getting a few of the plaudits he deserves, doing different roles from a lockdown defender, to games as a general defender, to even tagging as a midfielder for a bit.

“He’s had a great year, his ability to get his job done has been outstanding. He’s growing in confidence and played 50 games now in AFL footy, which is the mark where a lot of people say you need to tick off to feel like you belong.

“I think we’re seeing that.”

Cowan looked ready to launch at the end of his second season, where he played 17 of the final 19 games in 2024 to become a consistent member of the Blues’ defensive setup. But injury setbacks made for a disjointed 2025 campaign, playing just three full games for the season this time 12 months ago.

Now back in his groove, that confidence that Newman speaks about is evident when you watch Cowan play his football.

Playing with his trademark physicality, Cowan is not only going head-to-head with some of the opposition’s best each week, but - in the eyes of assistant coach Ash Hansen - the best part about his recent form is his adherence to both role and system.

“From a team perspective, he’s taking on huge roles every week - arguably on one of the opposition’s most dangerous players. He’s someone who I think thrives on the challenge against the best: when he’s given those roles, he hones in but also doesn’t lose the team dynamic,” Hansen said.

“To not just get locked into his role, but also support his teammates through his ability to outnumber in the air or work over at ground level has been super impressive. He’s always shown the capacity to do the things he’s doing now, but he’s doing them more regularly, which ensures a more impactful performance over four quarters.”

The weekend’s game was a prime example of that. Tasked with the role on GWS captain Greene (who received three Brownlow votes in the corresponding game last year), Cowan didn’t let the enormity of the task get to him.

So much so that for those watching along at home, they would’ve seen instances where he wasn’t just opposed to Greene, but also halving contests against the likes of Jake Stringer and Jesse Hogan.

“He was on Greene the whole team, but those instances you see on the TV screen, that’s because he’s left Greene to react to another teammate coming off Hogan,” Hansen said.

“That’s the most pleasing thing: as a collective, they’re playing defensive system which is helping us win the ball back higher up the field. That’s been a strength of his.”

It’s for reasons like Hansen described that two people who know Cowan best at the Club sing from the same hymn sheet when asked him to describe him as a teammate.

That’s despite Newman’s protestations that they’re “maybe not mates, more so colleagues”.

“We’ve got the ultimate trust in ‘Cow’,” Newman said.

“He’s still relatively young in terms of his career, but he’s got so much trust from what he’s been able to do over time. That’s not only from the defenders, but from the coaching staff and the rest of the playing group - he puts his ego aside and you know exactly what you’re going to get from him.”

Carroll adds: “we all love him, and it seems like the fans love him as well.”

“He’s the ultimate teammate that’s happy to go above and beyond to get the job done. He’s been awesome reaching out with me in recent weeks [during Carroll’s injury] - he cares a lot and he makes footy fun.

“I love having ‘Cow’ around… even though he’s an interesting cat.”

Please explain?

“He’s just a bit unique and goes about it a bit differently, on and off the field. He’s a Scooby Doo nuff: I’ve been told he watched Scooby Doo in the shower the night before every game to shave his legs.

“He posts his dog ‘Scoob’ every three days on Instagram. I’d probably do the same though, Scoob’s very cute.”

On the scale of youthful exuberance to grumpy old defenders, Newman puts Cowan more in the camp of the former, making footy fun for the likes of himself, Nick Haynes and Jacob Weitering.

“Are you saying we’re the old fossils?

“We feel like we’ve got a nice mix. It’s a nice balance of the older grumpy guys and then some guys who can lighten the mood with ‘Cow’, ‘Deany’ and Billy Wilson. ‘Cow’ can look grumpy, but he’s definitely in the young, exuberant area.

“We’ve got a few antagonists in those young boys that can get the grumpiness out of ‘Weiters’, which has been great to see.”