Reigning Carlton best and fairest Jacob Weitering says fans can expect the club to bounce back this weekend against Fremantle following the club’s 0-2 start.
The Blues traded blows with both Richmond and Collingwood to start the season, but ultimately fell short.
Weitering said coach David Teague knows just how to push the players in the right direction.
“The one thing I’ll say about (Teague) is his relationship with the players is stronger than ever,” he told SEN’s Whateley.
“As a leadership group we completely back him in to give us a game plan to perform each week and he’s great at building those personal relationships and I reckon that’s the biggest part of AFL nowadays, the generations that are coming through.”
“But no doubt when we play like we did on the weekend we’ve got to put our hand up as players.
“Our defensive intent on the weekend was not good enough and he’s certainly demanding on us. He understands we need a push in certain weeks and this was one of them.
“There’s no doubt we got a bit of rev up in the review on Monday and the boys responded during training on Tuesday … you’ll definitely see a response (against Fremantle).”
Weitering has been with the Blues for six years now and started 0-2 in all six of those seasons.
“It’s six years of having that occur (for me) so far and whether Richmond coming into their dynasty has contributed to that, that probably doesn’t help the situation,” the defender said.
“It’s been frustrating certainly. As a team, as a squad I thought we bonded really well last year and we came into this pre-season really confident.
“It’s always tough to come up against the reigning premiers and then a really good outfit in Collingwood and it’s probably magnified by the fact that there’s crowds back and it’s probably the biggest game of each weekend, Thursday night footy, and unfortunately we haven’t been able to get the job done and we put our hand up for that.”
Carlton will be without key pair Zac Fisher and Jack Martin for up to six weeks in a cruel injury blow.
They come up against a team in Fremantle equally ravaged by injuries and Weitering believes that will lead to a spirited affair.
The key defender expects to get the big match-up on Dockers key forward Matt Taberner.
“I had Matt Taberner last year so I think I’ll go to him this week. Sean Darcy’s been down there,” he said.
“Fremantle, to their credit, they’ve been able to win a game with a lot more injuries than us as well, so they’ve been under some duress and played some good football.
“All credit to them and we’ll see how their team shapes up … I’m really looking forward to the challenge.”
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