Liam Jones’ call to remain unvaccinated means, for the time being, he will not be a factor in Carlton’s 2022 campaign.
From an on-field perspective, the key defender was a player the Blues really could not afford to lose.
Jones is comfortably in Carlton’s five most important players structurally, sharing the load down back alongside Jacob Weitering and taking the opposition’s best forward as often as Weitering does.
While the 30-year-old can be seen as a whipping boy, he has developed into a reliable key defender who rarely if ever gets out-marked.
In 2021, Jones was involved in 110 contested defensive one-on-one contests, losing just 13 of them. A loss rate of 11.8 per cent. By comparison, Steven May’s loss rate sat at 23.2 per cent, Harris Andrews 20 per cent, Aliir Aliir 16.8 per cent and even Weitering was 20.8 per cent.
His absence is a huge loss for Carlton and gives new coach Michael Voss an early headache. Though, he has the full summer to work out a solution.
Jones missed three games in 2021 and it left the Blues’ key defensive cupboard bare, given Oscar McDonald and Caleb Marchbank were already on the long-term injury list. Brodie Kemp and Lachie Plowman did their best to fill the void, but were playing out of their weight division.
McDonald has been retained for 2022, while Marchbank continues to work his way back from a torn ACL. The Blues also traded for rising Western Bulldogs key defender Lewis Young, adding to their depth.
Young however was brought in to stand alongside Weitering and Jones and play a third-tall intercept marking role. He may now need to step into a more primary responsibility.
The 22-year-old is still adding size and wasn’t yet ready for the role at the Western Bulldogs in 2021.
Voss’ game plan will also be a factor here. Under David Teague, the entire defensive structure revolved around Weitering and Jones beating their opponents one-on-one. While both excelled at that, it ultimately was not an effective way of defending.
If Carlton moves to a more zone or positional based defence, they may be able to paper over the loss of Jones.
So what will their backline look like in Round 1 without Jones? With Marchbank unlikely to be ready for the start of the season it will likely fall to Young or McDonald to take the job on Richmond star Jack Riewoldt while Weitering once again goes to Tom Lynch.
Maybe the Blues pull the trigger on moving Mitch McGovern into defence?
Assuming Jones does hold firm and is made inactive, they will get the chance to replace him on their list.
They could find depth in recently delisted players like Hawthorn’s Michael Hartley, Richmond’s Ryan Garthwaite or St Kilda’s Oscar Clavarino.
Maybe the Blues get more ambitious and ask how Daniel Talia’s foot is healing or knock on Essendon development coach Alex Rance’s door. Blatant speculating, but Carlton wants to play finals in 2022 and key defenders are hard to find.
Regardless, Jones’ absence looms as Voss’ first big test in the chair.
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