Wherever Carlton play him, Jacob Weitering keeps showing he will soon be an AFL star.
The key position player overcame a corked hip to take seven marks and kick three goals as the Blues opened the season on Thursday night with a 43-point loss to Richmond.
Coach Brendon Bolton chuckled when the inevitable question came - where do they intend to play Weitering?
"This question will be asked all year, I reckon," Bolton replied.
He spent most of his impressive debut season last year in defence, but Weitering showed on Thursday night he is just as effective as a key forward.
"For his growth, we'll develop him at both ends (of the ground)," Bolton said.
"We drafted him originally as a defender, but we think in time he can be a genuine swingman."
Bolton is not worried about Weitering's availability for their round-two game against Melbourne, saying the fact he stayed on the ground for the whole match was a good sign.
"He endured through that, which was pleasing for him and pleasing for us - he's a tough nut, Weiters," Bolton said.
The Blues coach was pleased his young, developing side managed to bounce back in the third term and take the game up to Richmond.
At times in the first half it looked like becoming a long night for Carlton, but they reduced the margin to 25 points before Richmond kicked clear.
"What I was excited about is we saw our future out there - I think we had five teenagers, about seven under 21, three debutants plus our last year's crop," Bolton said.
"So you saw our future (and) they weren't totally intimidated."
Another youngster to impress was last year's No.6 draft pick Sam Petrevski-Seton, who made his AFL debut despite playing no pre-season games.
"You can just see he has poise with the ball, he's calm, the occasion didn't intimidate him," Bolton said.
"If you did deep into his life, not a lot intimidates Sammo and we think he has a big future."
Turnovers cost Carlton dearly and Bolton said they had to work on their ball use, but there were some promising signs particularly in the second half.
"What it says is these young kids won't give up," he said.
"They didn't let the scoreboard affect them at halftime."
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