Carlton midfielder George Hewett believes the group has been revitalised by the significant changes the club has made over summer, and defended the team after footage of a recent training session went viral for all the wrong reasons.
The Blues lost key players in the trade period, including Charlie Curnow, Jack Silvagni and Tom de Koning, while also moving on from head of football Brad Lloyd and multiple assistant coaches.
Even beyond that, former captain Sam Docherty retired and six others were delisted.
READ MORE: How Aussie speed skater cheated death after horror accident
READ MORE: Australia's perfect recipe to conquer Milano Cortina
READ MORE: US superstar Vonn rips rivals for hot mic slip
They were busy in the trade period, bringing in five players, and then landed father-son defender Harry Dean with the third pick in the draft.
Carlton has new line coaches, including Josh Fraser from Collingwood, former North Melbourne player Leigh Adams and retired Port Adelaide star Travis Boak in a leadership role.
Hewett, who won the club's best and fairest in 2025, says the group has a new spark to it.
"Yeah I do (think we've freshened up the list)," Hewett told 3AW's Wide World of Sports Radio.
"Getting Will Hayward, Ollie Florent, a few of my mates from the Swannies, Campbell Chesser, Ben Ainsworth, Liam Reidy.
"I just feel like we've brought in blokes that are hungry and ready to prove a point, I think.
"They've been training really well. I can't really speak for Will and Ollie, but I know they're great for culture, off the field as well, in terms of bringing the group together.
"It's just excitement at the moment. That's the word I'm feeling at the moment. We can't wait.
"Pre-season's been pretty long, so we've got internal tomorrow, sort of stuff, and then getting into the opposition in about a fortnight, which is exciting."
The Blues have their faire share of ex-Swans on their list now, including Hewett, Florent, Hayward and defender Nic Newman.
Carlton had a poor 2025 season, missing the finals, winning only nine games, and their once strong contest and clearance game-plan struggled to stack up.
When asked if they had made changes to their game plan for 2026, Hewett said "definitely".
"The competition doesn't lie," he added.
"We know where we sit from last year. We've gone to work.
"I know that contest and defence will always be our number one pillar of focus. That is probably the number one thing that wins you premierships, or gives you a chance to get around the mark.
"Then we've been focusing and honing in on our offensive skills. That was mainly pre-Christmas and then we've worked on tightening up our contest and defence."
Hewett was asked about the viral training footage that has made headlines this week, featuring a number of skill errors by Carlton players.
He feels they should be cut some slack given it was late in a lengthy training session.
"I actually haven't seen the video," Hewett said.
"We were five hours into a session, we'd run 28km, we were a bit tired," he joked.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.