Lachie Cowan will have to “cop it on the chin from the leaders” when he and Wade Derksen front up for the start of Carlton pre-season later this month as vice-captain Jacob Weitering labelled off-season indiscretions as “disappointing” and “not acceptable”.
Running defender Cowan was suspended by the AFL for the first two rounds of 2027 and hit with a $5000 suspended fine for conduct unbecoming as a result of being taken to hospital after using drugs last month.
Backman Derksen was banned by the Blues for the first three games of the year and lost his licence after blowing well over the legal blood alcohol level while in the Northern Territory in September.
Weitering noted there was some frustration in the Carlton camp that two players acted poorly, given the entire playing group was talked through off-season expectations.
“As a group we talk about what our expectations are, what our standards are and should be over the off-season and clearly some boys haven’t lived up to those,” he said.
“There are already repercussions for those boys but they are going to have to front not only us (players) but staff members around the club and those people they have let down.”
Weitering flagged a tough reception for the pair, with Carlton’s first-to-four year players due to start pre-season on November 23, and the rest of the group a week later.
“(Cowan) is a young kid but I think we can all say we have made mistakes in our younger years,” the veteran said.
“It is certainly something he is going to have to learn from and front up on day one of pre-season and cop it on the chin from the leaders. He is going to put his head down and make sure he does everything he can to earn the respect back of the playing group and everyone around the club. He is an excellent footballer and an excellent person so I will back him in to do that.”
The off-field indiscretions came after a year Weitering labelled as a “rollercoaster”, which included Elijah Hollands’ unusual on-field behaviour and the sacking of Michael Voss.
But 218-game defender Weitering said the club culture was in the right place.
“I look at the on-field during the year, we had some struggles. Naturally, we had a coach move on, we had an on-field incident at the start of the year which was very hard on a lot of people,” he said.
“It is very easy as a club and players and everyone involved just to roll over and just give up. It could have been a very bad year for us but I think the culture we displayed both on and off field to turn it around everywhere was super.
“But then to have a few more slip ups I guess is disappointing and that is an obvious answer. All we can do is look at those guys and let them know it is not acceptable and we move forward and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Weitering spoke on Saturday as part of McDonalds’ McHappy Day, raising money to support ill or injured children and their families through Ronald McDonald House.
The Carlton leader said he was excited to land father-son gun Cody Walker at next week’s draft, given he has already played with the youngster in a VFL match this year.
Weitering also played with Cody’s father Andrew.
“Cody was around the club a fair bit this year and he looked like an AFL player the way he was training and playing in the VFL,” he said.