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The young Blues who have caught veteran defender's eye early on in pre-season training
Nic Negrepontis • December 6th, 2024 9:48 am
Carlton veteran Nic Newman believes the club’s improvement in 2025 will come from younger players making a leap and an increased focus on their defensive work.
The Blues have a glut of players in that 20-25 age range, including the likes of Sam Walsh, Tom De Koning, Adam Cerra, Lachie Cowan, Jaxon Binns, Elijah Hollands, Jesse Motlop, Brodie Kemp and Corey Durdin.
Newman named a few who have impressed him in the early days of pre-season training.
“I think for us it’s that third and fourth-year group. Guys like Jaxon Binns, Lachie Cowan, Jesse Motlop’s moving really well,” Newman told SEN Breakfast.
“A guy that hasn’t been mentioned is big Harry Lemmey. A big key position forward-ruck and he’s come back in great condition.
“Some of those guys that are in their third or fourth year, they’re the group impressing me at the moment.”
Newman, who has finished on the podium for Carlton’s best and fairest in successive years, weighed in on how the club can push up the ladder in 2025.
“I think in terms of where the improvement comes, there’s a few areas we can get better. Individually like I said I think it’s the third to fourth year guys – your Jesse Motlop, Lachie Cowan, Ollie Hollands types, I feel they’re all ready to step up and improve again,” he said.
“As a group we feel we let ourselves down a bit with our defending and we were a bit inconsistent with it.
“All the best teams in world sport are good defensively and we were too inconsistent in that last year and as a defender myself it hurt the pride a little bit.
“That’s an area we’ll be going at pretty hard. I feel like we’ve got a really strong list and a hungry group that is ready to compete and we want to improve on last year and going after our defence and contest is going to be a big one this off-season.”
Newman said the squad is largely healthy at this early stage of the pre-season, with Charlie Curnow and Blake Acres notable players working their way back from surgeries.
“I think we’re fairly healthy at the moment. I don’t think I’m speaking out of school. I’m sometimes a bit oblivious at this time of year and there are guys who get managed pre-Christmas as well. A couple of us older guys are in and out of sessions,” Newman said.
“Charlie (Curnow) is building back from his ankle surgery. I assume he won’t be too far away from full training. He was running around on Wednesday like a cut snake. He’s looking alright.
“Blake Acres is coming back from back surgery, but he’s starting to move pretty well.
“In terms of the health of the group, it’s pretty good overall and we’ve got a lot of guys out there training. Hopefully we can stay healthy.”
Carlton will be hoping they can put the pieces together in 2025, given they sat second on the ladder after Round 19 last season, only to fall off a cliff from there.
