Current ladder position: 9th (seven wins, seven losses)
Form: LWWLW
The run home:
St Kilda (8th) at the MCG
Sydney Swans (4th) at Telstra Dome
Western Bulldogs (1st) at Telstra Dome
Adelaide (5th) at AAMI Stadium
Port Adelaide (13th) at Telstra Dome
North Melbourne (10th) at Telstra Dome
Brisbane Lions (6th) at the Gabba
Hawthorn (3rd) at Telstra Dome
Where to from here?
Carlton’s run home is a daunting one to say the least. Six of their last eight opponents currently reside in the top eight with three likely to finish in the top four. Brett Ratten will look at this stretch as eight separate opportunities for his boys to learn, improve and maybe knock off a more fancied opponent here or there.
He flirted with setting his team for a run at the finals after jumping into the top eight with the round 12 win over Collingwood, but the loss to the Bombers the next week made it pretty clear they need to work on a few things in-house before stepping into September.
Crunch games:
Round 15: St Kilda (h)
Round 20: North Melbourne (h)
Win these two against their closest rivals for the eight and the Blues will rightly consider themselves September contenders. Lose one or both and it's goodbye finals footy for another year.
Injury list:
Chris Judd (concussion) available
Jordan Bannister (hamstring) test
Clinton Benjamin (quad) 2 weeks
Dennis Armfield (finger) 2-3 weeks
Ryan Houlihan (hip) 3 weeks
Paul Bower (shoulder) 4 weeks
Richard Hadley (groin) indefinite
Who's gonna save us?
Well, Chris Judd has already saved the Blues and expect him to continue to resurrect the fortunes of his new club as he gets fitter. Andrew Walker will make a difference if he can make a successful comeback from shoulder surgery in the VFL.
What the club says:
"We are never talking finals again.
"It was great that we got to have a look [at the top eight] but as soon as we got our head above the horizon, it seemed to get kicked off.
"That was the challenge I threw to the group to stay in the eight but now I think it is just about us winning games and the development." – coach Brett Ratten after losing to Essendon in round 12
"I said it once and I’m not saying it [again].
"We need to work on the process of winning games and winning two games in a row would be a fantastic start for us.
"We’ve got confidence in our ability to play some good footy, but I think we’ve seen some of the [bad] work that we can do as well and that’s being up and down.
"We didn’t come to play last week at all in that first quarter and I think that showed in the game and the week before we beat Collingwood. We need to string wins together and that’s our next challenge; to get two or three wins together." – Ratten after the round-13 win over the Tigers
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
