TEAMS coached by Michael Malthouse leave no stone unturned when it comes to their preparation.

It was a hallmark of his time at West Coast and Collingwood, in particular, and the same trademark is coming to the fore at Carlton.

It manifested itself in two ways at the MCG on Sunday afternoon as the Blues stormed home to beat Richmond by 20 points in the second elimination final, a win as famous as any by the old, dark navy blues in recent memory.

The first was Carlton's ability to run out the game. The Blues came back from six goals down to beat Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium last week just to make the finals. This time around, they spotted Richmond a 26-point lead at half-time, before kicking 12 goals to three in the second half.

"We really believe in our fitness. We had a great pre-season and we are running out games really well," said midfielder Bryce Gibbs, one of Carlton's best against the Tigers. 

The architect of that pre-season was Justin Cordy, who announced several weeks ago he was leaving the Blues at the end of the season. The strong expectation is that Malthouse will be reunited with his long-time associate from Collingwood, David Buttifant, at Carlton next year.

That being the case, Buttifant will be rubbing his hands in glee at what he is about to inherit because the fitness and the work ethic is in place.

"He's been fantastic," said Malthouse of Cordy. "But full credit to the professionalism of the players."

The other manifestation of Malthouse's high level of expectation is a player such as Nick Duigan.

It has been a puzzling year for Duigan, who upon being named to the leadership group at the start of the year, would have expected to once again stake a claim for a regular berth in Carlton's best 22.

Yet Sunday represented just his fourth game for the season after a year spent in Malthouse's doghouse biding his time with the Northern Blues. 

He only played as a very late inclusion on Sunday after midfielder Brock McLean decided at the end of Carlton's pre-game warm-up, less than 30 minutes before the opening bounce, that his troublesome calf wasn't quite right.

So in stepped Duigan to kick four goals in his most memorable outing for the Blues to date. 

"Anyone who is chosen to play as an emergency should be on notice," Malthouse said. "By Monday they knew they were part of the squad, so it shouldn't be a matter that the player isn't ready to play and we shouldn't be embarrassed by putting a player on board who wasn't ready to play."

"It was a good call by Brock. We're lucky it wasn't the first kick of the game and not the last kick of the warm-up. It was a message to us that he was still a week shy."

Duigan's efforts inspired the Blues. "It's funny isn't it," said Gibbs. "Last-minute inclusion, in the right place at the right time. He's in the leadership group and brings a lot to us, so for him to stand up like he did was fantastic."

"He is in the leadership group for a reason," added Mitch Robinson. "I think he's 29 now and he's got a bit of experience in football, he been in our system now for about three years and he's got a massive heart."

The feeling among the Blues afterwards was that they always believed the game would turn. They also believe they may have regained some respect around the competition. Certainly, that was the belief of jubilant club president Stephen Kernahan after the match, who didn't want to speak to the media, deflecting all the praise to the players.

But the Blues now saddle up for the Sydney Swans at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night. As good as their comebacks have been over the last fortnight and their form in general has been for the last month, there remains a concern about their tardy starts.

Said Malthouse: "Next week we play the reigning premiers on their ground and we have just given up some starts to sides and we have to work pretty hard to get back. We are ready to play some good football."

"Today, I wasn't worried about the first quarter. We just had to absorb some blows and we just had to absorb that until we were ready to go.

"We don't want to be chasing all day, but nonetheless, I half suspected, in fairness to the Tigers who are a side I admire, maybe a few of them played their game early. Persistence is wonderful if you keep at sides like that," he said.