ON A morning where Carlton legends gather, two men gravitate towards each other.

The Blues, in planning to launch their 160-year heritage jumper set to be worn in Sunday's pivotal clash against Hawthorn, wanted to couple together club greats both past and present to commemorate the occasion. One pairing stood out more than most, given none had more in common than Craig Bradley and Sam Walsh.

The pair are striking in their shared similarities. Across a bitterly cold morning at Johnny, Vince and Sam's Ristorante in the heart of Carlton's Lygon St, the topic of their conversation swings from footy, to cricket, to family. Bradley tells of how he met Walsh's father Wayne, himself a diehard Blues supporter, during a recent golf trip to South Australia.

But nothing strikes up their chat quite like premierships. Bradley has played in three of them, twice with Carlton and once with Port Adelaide in the SANFL. Walsh is determined to join him, perhaps even later this year.

Already fitted in the Carlton guernsey that will be worn this weekend, notable in its likeness to the 1995 jumper worn when Bradley and the Blues were last premiers, Walsh can let his mind wander for the time being.

"That's the motivation for all of us," Walsh tells AFL.com.au.

"The biggest thing that we went to work on, probably since 'Vossy' (coach Michael Voss) has come in, is building an identity. If we focus on that, then the rest will come. 'Braddles' was saying before, you go through the ups and downs and you can't look too far ahead.

"For us, we want to be known as that sort of really tough, gritty team. You wear the collars in this game and you want to be known as hard workers. If we do that, it'll take care of itself. We know we've got a lot of guys who are wanting the same thing."

Indeed, Carlton will use the jumper it plans to wear this weekend as motivation as it seeks to right some wrongs on Sunday. After all, it's not just the way the club's 160-year heritage guernsey looks, it's what it represents.

When the Blues designed the jumper, they didn't want to draw inspiration from any of the side's 16 V/AFL premiership teams. Rather, the club wanted to incorporate something from each.

Carlton's current crop still wants to make it 17 later this year, still determined to join the exclusive club that players like Bradley entered so long ago. A win on Sunday could prove the starting point to getting back on the right track again.

"It's pretty cool for the club to celebrate the history and to have the collars on the jumpers. It's pretty cool and it's old school. 'Braddles', you used to cut holes in yours, didn't you?" Walsh asks.

"We'd stretch them out a bit," Bradley laughs.

"I might do that for the game," Walsh replies.

Bradley has seen a fair bit during a career that spanned more than 500 matches with Port Adelaide in the SANFL, Carlton in the V/AFL and in representative contests for both South Australia and Australia.

A two-time premiership player with the Blues, including being a key part in the club's last flag-winning side of 1995, he thinks the current iteration now have the best chance yet of putting themselves alongside the greats.

"Yeah, I think so (it's the best Carlton team since 1995)," Bradley tells AFL.com.au. "They're fantastic to watch. You can see it evolving right in front of our eyes, which is really exciting. They're great to watch."

Bradley also knows a fair bit about overcoming doubts. In 1995, Carlton won its first seven matches before dropping consecutive games against bottom-five teams Sydney and St Kilda to the tune of 72 and 56 points respectively. Questions were understandably raised about the side's flag chances, before it reeled off 16 wins in a row on its way towards the premiership.

Carlton's current outfit are in the midst of overcoming similar doubts now. Having moved among the premiership favourites a month ago, the Blues go into Sunday's clash against the Hawks having lost four of their last five games. Questions aren't just being raised about the side's flag chances, but its finals hopes as well.

"It's lot of things," Bradley says of what goes into becoming a premiership side.

"But, like 'Walshy' said, it's continual improvement and playing for each other and trusting each other and getting a whole lot of football under your belt. You take a few knocks along the way, but you keep getting stronger and stronger and start understanding the work you're doing together. In the end, before you know it when you're working hard, it happens.

"But certainly, the boys look on track. It's a tough competition and so many teams can win it. You've got to give yourself every chance and the guys look like they're really trying hard and they're giving themselves every chance."

The football chat pauses for a moment when Walsh remembers Bradley's cricket achievements. In among a 502-game football career, Bradley also played four first-class games for South Australia and Victoria in the 1980s and 1990s, while he also represented Carlton in grade cricket.

Walsh fancied himself as an off-spinner and a handy opening bat as a junior, before opting for a career in footy. Now, he's restricted to a few hits in the makeshift nets of the club's Ikon Park gymnasium. But it remains yet another shared passion.

"When I got drafted, a lot of people said, 'This is the guy you should watch'," Walsh says, nodding at Bradley.

"Obviously, I'd heard the name Craig Bradley and a lot of the names at Carlton around that time were synonymous with premierships and success.

"That's the ultimate goal so, when I got to the club, I started watching a few highlights and I always thought that man could run. He was up and down the wing, which was great to watch.

"I loved my cricket growing up as well, so to hear he played high-level cricket ... I obviously knew how professional he must have been to play that many games both in the AFL and in the SANFL as well. He's definitely a player I've looked up to."

Next, running is on the agenda. Defined as footballers by their elite endurance bases, Walsh and Bradley wax about techniques, tracks and how the latter somehow managed to get fitter the deeper he got into his career. Even at the age of 38, when Bradley retired, he was one of the club's ever-presents in the midfield.

"You probably have to develop a bit of a love for it, don't you?" Walsh asks.

"You've got to love it," Bradley replies.

"You've got to be a little bit strange to the craft, to be honest. In a weird way, I enjoyed pushing myself. When it was running, I was pushing myself to the max. That's OK. I know it sounds strange, but I just enjoyed that side of the game.

"You're out there to win and do the best you can. You've just got to push as hard as you can. If you're in the midfield, it's a war of attrition. I always thought that. You want to be the last one standing. If that means you run and push harder than everyone, then that's what it is."

But if Walsh has joined Bradley as one of Carlton's best ever gut-runners, there's another area where he's desperate to be held alongside him. That's being a premiership player. Standing in a restaurant full of them, Walsh is itching to get another chance to compete deep into September.

"I think the legacy they left, we aspire to be," Walsh says, glancing at the room.

"The best thing about the old guys is that there's never any pressure, they just want us to have the opportunity and fun that they created over their time. That's something that we know is not going to be easy to get, but you want to work hard towards it.

"It's definitely a big privilege playing for Carlton and, on days like these, you really realise how strong the history of the club is."