CARLTON midfielder Marc Murphy says his side would be extremely disappointed with anything less than playing finals next year.

The Blues finished 11thon the ladder this year but Murphy said the feeling at the club was that they could progress to finish inside the top eight in 2009.

“As a club, we are looking to play finals next year, and anything less than that would be disappointing,” Murphy told the Sunday Herald-Sun.

“We have built a good game plan this year, so, we are going to get better each game we play.”

Murphy said the Carlton players would sit down with the coaching staff before the end of the year to set firm goals for the 2009 season but he said things were looking god already judging by the fitness of youngsters that had already started pre-season training.

“The players set our own agenda of what we want to achieve, and I am sure the coaches do that as well,” he said.

“In the past couple of years, some guys have come back (from the break) a bit out of shape, which obviously isn’t a good way to start pre-season,” he said.

“All the young players have come back in good shape, so, hopefully, the older boys will as well when they return, and we’ll all get into it.”