Carlton will be hoping star recruit Zac Williams can step straight into their midfield unit in 2021 and he has reportedly impressed early on the track.
Blues defender Jacob Weitering has revealed that co-captain and on-ball leader Patrick Cripps has “taken to” Williams and the two will be hoping to form a damaging partnership at centre bounces.
“Zac’s been a great addition as well. I think Crippa’s really taken to him. Obviously Cripps’ probably needed some support in that role of being the big contested ball winner and I think Zac is going to try and take that on,” Weitering told SEN Mornings.
“So he’s been very good at training. He’s a competitive beast and he’s a very good kick of the football and will provide us a bit of a spark going forward.”
As for Carlton’s other big recruit Adam Saad, Weitering has been impressed with his ball-use and speed so far across pre-season training.
“He’s been great Saady. I won’t be kicking the ball too much I think, I’ll be handing it off to him.”
“He whizzes through everyone, he’s got an amazing ability to find space and hit a target so it’s very exciting.
“I still consider Sam Docherty an All-Australian half back. Obviously that’s what he was doing before he did his knees and Saad on the other flank is really exciting for us.
“As I said before, it adds to our speed and ball movement. I think we were really good at getting it into our forward half, I think we were fourth for inside 50s, but we just couldn’t get a score on the board so maybe he gets down and kicks a few goals from 60 out.”
Defender Caleb Marchbank will also be a recruit in a sense this year, having sat out the entire 2020 season with neck and knee injuries.
Weitering hopes we get the best of the 24-year-old in 2021.
“He’s had a really, really tough run with injuries, but to his credit he’s in the gym every day, first in at the club doing his work trying to get his rehab in and he’s close mates with Charlie Curnow and obviously Charlie’s in rehab too so they’re working really well together,” he said.
“He’s the x-factor in our backline, he can intercept mark and kick really well so it’d be nice to see him out on the field this year.”