Cooper Lord is a name Carlton fans should start to learn, according to coach Michael Voss.
Over the past three weeks, Lord has been tasked with curbing some of the competition's best midfielders.
Caleb Serong. Noah Anderson, and most recently Zak Butters.
Serong was kept to 19 possessions, as was Anderson. All the while, Lord found career-highs in 22 touches against Fremantle, and then 24 against Gold Coast.
Saturday's role on Butters started positively, but a concussion got in the way as the Blues youngster was subbed out in the third quarter.
"He's a great player, Butters, a very important player to them as their fire starter - what more can you say about him? The opportunity for Cooper to come in as a very diligent young man… he's a pro, he's going to get everything out of himself in his career with whatever that looks like. You go and learn on good players, he'll learn a lot over these last three weeks," Voss said.
"He's banked 21 games across the season, he'll unfortunately miss the next one, but it's such a valuable body of work to have to be able to give you the confidence that you belong. He's proven that, he belongs in AFL footy. Hopefully, he can impact for us in years to come."
Great mate and Carlton draftee Jagga Smith was well aware of the potential of Lord, despite how he joined the club.
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Lord was overlooked in the 2023 National Draft, but was selected in the following mid-season intake, and has played 23 games since debuting late last year.
"It's been great to see Coop develop this year and lock himself in the line-up. He's had to play a few different roles: it's a tough midfield to crack, but through injury comes opportunity and the roles he's been given has been great for him to develop from," Smith said on Channel 7's Sunday Footy Feast last week.
"He's been doing that nullifying role since back in the school footy days, so he hasn't changed. He works really hard and it's great to see him get that reward."
The Blues have one more clash to round out season 2025, facing Essendon on Thursday night at the MCG.
