Carlton young gun Jacob Weitering will spend most of this season in the backline, although the Blues are still keen to develop the 19-year-old into a swingman in the years to come.
The number one selection in the 2015 AFL draft, Weitering played 20 games for Carlton in his first season with the club, and finished third in the Rising Start Award behind winner Callum Mills and runner-up Caleb Daniel.
Despite playing in the forward half of the ground in stints for the Dandenong Stingrays in his first year in the TAC Cup, Weitering spend his final season as a key defender, a position in which he spent most of 2016 in for Brendon Bolton.
But Bolton has bigger plans for the youngster over the next few years of his career, but in the short-term he still has a job to do in the backline.
"I'm just really mindful that we as a club understand that he is only in his second year and if we chop and change things for him too randomly that can unsettle young players," Bolton said.
"So we just want to make sure he's totally solidified as a defender first and then he can grow into other roles.
"But the long-term plan is he can play at both ends and we've already started to do that, but we just haven't done it flippantly."
