Viv Kerr has told Patrick more about how her husband played in his 149 games than any old tapes have been able to. Carlton's No.1 female ticket holder, she has told him how quick and tenacious he was, how he was made vice-captain, how he made the Carlton Hall of Fame, was an emergency in the team of the century and, as an off-field powerbroker, played a key part in luring Ron Barassi from Melbourne.

She's told him she likes players who go in hard for the ball like Laurie used to do, and has passed on a lot of other tips. "She's always telling me to use my hips, because I've got the big body," said the 17-year-old. "She actually got up and demonstrated it to me one time a few years ago, she gave me a bit of a push and showed me how to mark. She doesn't think I've got it yet, but I'm working on it!"

Kerr used to go and watch the Blues play every week when he was a kid; he can remember whole rows at Princes Park and the MCG being filled with members of his family, the people in front of them turning to see who was doing all the yelling and screaming. The thought of one day playing for a club other than Carlton is a strange one – "I think my grandma's advice if that happened would be to start kicking it through the points" – but wants to make it can happen, first.

The young forward played some good football for the Oakleigh Chargers in the last part of last year, having decided when he suffered an early shoulder injury that he didn't want to spend the whole season out injured and worked hard to get better and back into the team. "I was never going to just get handed a position and I had to work very hard for it, but I'm glad I did," he said. "It made me see how quickly footy can get taken away from you, and how when you're coming back from a serious injury you can't skip any corners. It made me feel good, to know I could get back and play."

The experience has helped him this year, though Kerr came into the Vic Metro team for this month's national championships straight out of his St Kevin's school side and was taken aback by the pick-up in pace. "Sometimes in school or even TAC Cup footy it's like you almost have two chances to do something," he said. "At this level you only get a split second, so you have to play on instinct and adapt as quickly as you can, because that's the only way you can get better."

There's been one other lesson, too: to keep going. Kerr missed every shot for goal he took early in last week's match against South Australia, and headed to the three-quarter-time huddle with his head down, his team trailing by 35 points. Then he kicked four goals in the first 10 minutes of the final term. Everything going wrong suddenly started going right, and Metro wound up winning by three points.

"It was amazing," Kerr said. "One of the assistants told us at the huddle that we just had to get our heartbeat back. He said keep persisting and it will come, and for me that just meant thinking 'bugger it.' I thought, 'if I get another shot I'll just go for it', and suddenly they just started to go through."

He hopes they will keep going through in the next week, with Metro to play the Allies and Western Australia in their final two championship games, that his year will keep getting better from there and that his family might one day soon have a second club to cheer for. "I have no idea about the draft and whether I'm going to be good enough, but I'll be working as hard as I can to give myself a chance," Kerr says. "Right now it's all about Metro though, that's all any of us are thinking about. All we want is to finish off well, play some good footy and see how well we can go."

National under-18 championships

Round four

Friday June 24

SA v Vic Country, Etihad Stadium, 12.35pm

Allies v Vic Metro, Etihad Stadium, 2.35pm

Round five

Wednesday June 29

Vic Metro v WA, Simonds Stadium, 3.05pm

Vic Country v Allies, Simonds Stadum, 5.05pm