What Carlton does with the out-of-contract Sam Petrevski-Seton looms as an interesting situation at the end of the season.
Petrevski-Seton has been in and out of the side this year playing in a role across the half forward line and pushing into the midfield after multiple years playing in defence.
He started out his career as a midfielder, but the Blues have deployed him in almost every other position since some early success in the role.
Speaking during the week, teammate Eddie Betts stated Petrevski-Seton was feeling frustrated and hoping for more time through the middle.
“I guess for Sam (Petrevski-Seton) he’s been thrown around this year in a few different spots and I believe he really wants to play in the midfield,” Betts told Sportsday.
“He’s got to build his tank up a little bit because he’s got the skills to use it. He’s playing in the midfield in the VFL and he’s dominating, using his skills to hit targets and racking up 30 disposals.
“I guess with him he’s been a little bit frustrated this year that he wanted to cement a spot in the side, but that wasn’t happening because he was at half-back, in the midfield, came down forward to try a small forward role and it just wasn’t clicking.
“I reckon he needs to cement his spot, but over this pre-season he needs to get his tank right and just say, ‘listen, put me in the midfield, I deserve a spot in this midfield’, and just go from there.”
Passionate Blues man Andy Maher believes the former top 10 pick from the 2016 National Draft is yet to develop the endurance capacity to play on-ball.
“He hasn’t got a tank. To be brutally honest, after 93 games of AFL footy and five years in the system, he hasn’t got a tank that gets him through four quarters of a game at this level (in the midfield),” Maher told SEN’s Bob and Andy.
“He can play some sublime footy.”
Maher adds that how Petrevski-Seton is handled, both positionally and contractually, will be a headache for the Blues to solve in the off-season.
“He’s a real conundrum,” he said.
“They’re a team that is lacking quality through that part of the ground and the depth of quality … you wouldn’t want to give him away unless you were getting something in that could add to that part of the ground.
“You could see a world where Petrevski-Seton might play part of a deal for Adam Cerra in if that is come to pass. We’ll wait and see how that plays out.
“There’ll be lengthy consideration given to him. You’d hate to give away a player of that quality for fear of what he might do somewhere else.”