CARLTON co-vice captain Jacob Weitering fronted up to the media at the MCG ahead of the Blues' 10th annual AFL Carlton Respects Game.

This is what he had to say.

10:32

On the reality of the current pressure:

“You never go out to fail, and we’re in a very privileged position that we get to go out in front of tens of thousands of people, millions at a time watching us. You succeed in front of millions and you fail in front of millions - that’s the reality of the job.

“At the moment, as leaders, we’re not playing to the standard we want to play to: when the leaders don’t lead, it’s very hard to ask the younger crop to come up and do a job. We’ve got six weeks to find that purpose: winning is obvious, but how can we get the most out of this year to set us up for next year.”

On the team’s recent performances:

“The first 15 rounds, we probably had two rounds where we had teams score 85 points on us. That’s certainly something that we want to stop, the last three weeks has been 100+ points and you’re not going to win games of football doing that. I’m not saying we’re throwing away our identity, but we’ve certainly gone away from it in the last few weeks. You win games off the back of defence, and we haven’t been able to do that consistently - not for three quarters, sometimes not even a half.

“It has been disappointing for sure: we’ve been reviewing it quite hard, and we’re going to have some guys with a next-man-up mentality that are going to have to come in a do a job for us. Whether that’s the younger crop like an 18-year-old or 19-year-old, someone like Harry O’Farrell was really impressive in a tough loss.”

On getting the most out of the end of the season:

“It’s a conversation you have to have when finals aren’t a reality. Naturally, we’re competitive people that want to win games and win premierships - you don’t play AFL for anything else. For us to be in this situation after three years of pretty consistent football and double-digit win seasons, to fall short of that is disappointing.

“You can do one of two things: fold over, roll over and get to the end of the year and start planning your holiday, or you can get a bit out of the next six weeks. There’s a few things we can go back to, whether it is putting time into the younger boys, improving that identity with our defence, playing for each other and playing for the jumper.

“There’s pride on the line for the players, the Club, the fans - it has been very disappointing, but the next six weeks will show a lot about our character.”

On Blake Acres’ omission:

“It’s a challenging time when the team isn’t performing. When guys are putting their hand up in the VFL, that’s probably one positive at Carlton - our VFL performances over the last month, they’ve kept the energy up around the place. We’ve got some young guys that are showing some positive signs, Harry O’Farrell is one, Billy Wilson. We’ve had some senior guys that went down on the weekend, and a lot of the guys were complimentary about how Blake went.

On this weekend’s game against Melbourne:

“It always seems to be quite close against the Dees, we match up quite well in the midfield against them. They’re coming off a strong win on the weekend and they’re trying to find some purpose for the back end, it’ll be a good battle.”

On how the body is feeling:

“The ankle is feeling a lot better, naturally a lot of players aren’t playing at 100 per cent towards the end of the year. A nine-day break certainly helps things, a few people were saying I wasn’t moving to my absolute best - I let them know I don’t move that well generally…

“I’ve got six weeks to do a job. There’s Harry O’Farrell, Nick Haynes and guys down in the backline that are doing a wonderful job supporting me, and I’ll look to keep doing my job.”

01:10

On Adam Cerra being cited for umpire contact:

“It’s an interesting conversation, there’s been quite a bit of chatter about potential penalties for players caught in those situations. We’ll find out tomorrow night with the way AFL takes it, but a bit of common sense needs to come into play - with both players and umpires. The No.1 thing is player and umpire safety.”

On Marc Pittonet’s recent impact… and that goal:

“’Pitto’ is a very, very good person off the field - you see that with what he does around the Club, the way he was talking to the kids just before, he’s a terrific teammate. And he’s a competitive beast on the field. He certainly impacted for us on a down night on the weekend.

“I don’t smile much during games, but I had a smile on my face during that [goal]. It was a good moment, a refreshing moment for us that lifted the spirits on what was - to be completely honest - a down night. That’s something we can look to in a positive lens. The last three or four weeks, we’ve been able to stick together as a group and play games out despite the scoreboard not going our way, and that’s a moment we’ll hold close.”