Former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon says trade speculation surrounding Jacob Weitering this year has been “absolute nonsense”.
It comes after a dual premiership player claimed on Monday that the Blues should consider selling high with the All-Australian at the end of this season.
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Weitering put in a tremendous shift in last Saturday’s wildcard final win over Melbourne, helping drag the Blues over the line in the last quarter with several crucial defensive efforts.
The 28-year-old recorded 10 intercept possessions and 18 disposals to finish as the second-highest-rated player on the ground.
Alongside prodigious key-defensive talent Harry Dean, Carlton was near-impenetrable; conceding just seven goals for the game against the Dees, and just two in the second half.
“Jacob Weitering grew into the game to such a point where we went, ‘Oh, that’s what’s made him one of the pivotal defenders for a decade now,” AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley said on Monday night.
Lyon replied: “When great sides are defensively sound, and we know this, the premiership window tells us this, and you’ve got to have someone to hold it together, and he will hold it together.
“I don’t know, this talk about him going elsewhere. It’s just, for me, absolute nonsense.
“You’ve got this figure there; you build around him. You’ve got Dean with him now for the next 10 years, or however long Jacob’s got left.
“I’ll get to the votes in a minute, but Jacob Weitering was in them; he was resolute back there.”
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Trade noise surrounding Weitering, who’s contracted at Princes Park for a further five seasons, first arose in the midst of Carlton’s poor start to the year under former coach Michael Voss.
