Carlton small forward Jesse Motlop is ready to take on additional responsibility and put an injury-plagued year behind him as he prepares for the 2025 AFL season.

To talk YOU Sports Day Motlop’s manager Tom Seccull, along with Paul Sebastiani, said the 20-year-old goalkeeper is entering the 2024 season in good spirits and is ready to close a frustrating chapter in his career.

“He’s firing on all cylinders,” Seccull said. YOU Sports Day.

“This year has been quite disappointing.

“He had a fantastic pre-season, he was in the best shape of his career going into the year and then unfortunately he got hit with a little toe (injury) and then he came back, then he had a hamstring (injury), then before you know it he missed half the season.

“It was really frustrating for Jesse.”

Seccull added that although he returned at the end of the season and managed to play in the finals, ultimately it still didn’t add up to the cup for Motlop.

It would be a season of ‘what if’.

“He had to overcome that and get involved in the game, he managed to do that and managed to make some impact in the second half of the season,” Secccull said. he said.

“If you had told him in February that the year would be planned this way, you would not have chosen this.

“He was pretty level-headed about it.”

Motlop managed just seven appearances and six goals in 2024 as Carlton struggled to find a truly consistent small forward pressing to pair with Matt Owies, who has since moved to the West Coast.

Seccull, who is well and truly set for the small forward position at Princes Park next season, revealed how confident he and Motlop are of a return to form after a solid break.

“He had a great offseason, similar to last year,” Seccull said.

“He went to Adelaide, Darwin, Perth and saw his whole family.

“He’s really settled into Melbourne and that’s very exciting.

“I have no doubt that he will attack in pre-season in a similar way to what he did last year and put in a great performance for next year because it’s definitely an important role for the Blues’ structure moving forward. It’s a big opportunity for him.”

As a new pre-season begins in the AFL, Motlop will look to recapture his 2023 form, in which he scored 24 goals and had a direct impact on the finals.