Carlton star defender Jacob Weitering has revealed the torment of falling short in finals again in 2024 is driving the Blues' training standards as pre-season training turns its focus towards the new season.
The Blues were regarded as one of the premiership favourites mid-year of the 2024 season, racing up the ladder to book and hold a top-two position for six weeks until Round 19. A faulty end to the season stunned AFL pundits however, as the Blues remarkably dropped nearly out of the finals, saved from a heartbreaking ninth-placed finish by a Round 24 Fremantle loss.
In a matter of weeks, Carlton's home double-chance final was lost, and a trip to the Gabba against the eventual premiers was booked, with the Blues unable to register a score until halfway through the second quarter and after the Lions had tallied 60 points.
Weitering said that the burn of last year's finish was driving Carlton to make the most of their pre-season program.
"You can't win grand finals in January but you can certainly lose them," Weitering said.
"We're just gonna keep building off of a really strong foundation that we had in the backend of '24. There was some disappointment there and that's certainly gonna drive us.
"We got into our first big block of match sim and that will continue for the next few weeks and we'll just keep improving and focusing on what we can control as a group."
The Blues competed intensely during match simulation on Monday, with Weitering noting strong signs from the whole group's fitness.
"(The boys have come back in) really good nick. I think our block pre-Christmas was a really good one, everyone did plenty of work over the off-season.
"Obviously with the change at high performance with Rob (Inness) coming in, a few boys wanted to impress in terms of results and the ways the boys are implementing PBs.
"On the field, it's been really impressive so far. Digging into '25 is really exciting for us, new year, new beginning and hopefully it'll be a good one going forward."
The 2015 number one draft pick was also pleased with his own fitness stability this off-season after a calf concern interrupted last pre-season's programming.
"(My pre-seasons over the years) have probably been up and down, peaks and troughs. 10 years in now, which is a little bit worrying getting a little bit older," Weitering said.
"There's a really good young crew that are coming through and really impressing, and pushing the older guys through and raising the standard.
"For me personally I didn't train a whole lot last year off the back of my calf injury... I haven't missed much (this pre-season), which is great.
"Great improvement I guess for me, providing a bit of confidence going into games and hopefully I can play out this season, unlike last year."
Weitering played in 22 games last season after missing the opening three weeks for the Blues.
Carlton play Richmond in their traditional Round 1 timeslot on Thursday night, March 13, not before playing their pre-season fixture against GWS at Manuka Oval on Friday, February 28.
