Carlton defender Jacob Weitering will play his 100th game this weekend against Essendon.
The number one pick in the 2015 National Draft has found his feet at AFL level, making the All-Australian squad and winning the club’s best and fairest last season, backing up a strong 2019.
Weitering had a rocky introduction to AFL football however, playing as a key defender in a team stuck on the bottom of the ladder.
He played 42 games across his first two seasons, mostly as a key defender but also swinging forward at times. His form was patchy, as you would expect from a young key position player, but expectations were high as the number one pick.
The 23-year-old believes the penny dropped for him early in 2018.
After playing the first four games of 2018, Weitering suffered a leg injury and was forced to earn his spot back in the senior team via the VFL.
He would star in that state-league performance, taking 17 marks and finishing with 28 disposals for the Northern Blues.
The 2020 John Nicholls Medallist credits that moment as the turning point for him.
“That year (2018) I played the first four games, got injured, missed two and then came back through the VFL,” Weitering told SEN’s Whateley.
“I think that was probably the turning point when I was told I was coming back through the VFL.
“Obviously there’s a fair bit of expectation as a number one pick to play now and play consistently and to hear that, it was certainly a punch in the gut, but at the same time it was the release of pressure and it was ‘go back, get yourself sorted as a person and a player’.
“And it was funny, the first VFL game I played was against Frankston down at Frankston in front of half the peninsula which I’d played with or against.
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“That was the most nervous I was before a game that I’ve ever played and probably one of the best games I’ve played by the end of it.
“That was probably the big day.”
Weitering believes players taken with high draft picks need to develop a “mental toughness” to deal with the weight of expectations.
“It’s been pretty well documented that the club has had plenty of number one draft picks. I think at the time Marc Murphy, (VFL coach) Josh Fraser, Matthew Kreuzer, even Daisy Thomas was pick two, and the club has had a lot of high draft picks and I guess you do ask questions and what worked for them and what didn’t,” he said.
“At the end of the day it’s up to you and there’s definitely an element of mental toughness.
“It’s becoming more obvious throughout the AFL with social media and different factors that contribute to mental health, but I’m not delving too deep because that wasn’t a big issue for me.
“For me it was just trying to work through some negatives that were going on both on and off the field for me and I had a great support mechanism and I was able to work that.”
Weitering’s 100th game takes place on Sunday against Essendon in what is a must-win game for the 2-3 Blues.
He ranks first in the AFL for contested defensive one-on-one contents with 41, but has only lost 19.5 per cent of those.
By comparison, Harris Andrews ranks second with 34 and has a loss percentage of 32.4.
Essentially this suggests Weitering has to do a lot of defending, but holds his own at an All-Australian level.
