BRENDON Bolton has played a straight bat to questions about Carlton's interest in Jaeger O'Meara, but admits the wantaway Gold Coast star fits the Blues' age profile for trade targets.

Carlton, Hawthorn and St Kilda are among the clubs linked to O'Meara, who dropped a bomb on the Suns by requesting a fresh start after two seasons wrecked by a knee injury.

The 22-year-old reportedly wants a move to the Melbourne football bubble, however Bolton was keeping his cards close to his chest when quizzed about the departing Gold Coast young gun on Friday.

"He's a quality player, there's no doubt about that, but at risk of just straight-batting your question, I'm not going to go into specifics on where we're headed in terms of our list management," the Carlton coach said.

"Although I will say we're going to go to the draft, we've got a mantra to do that, and all clubs these days are open-minded to trading.

"If we trade for players, and this is not specifically talking about Jaeger, but we'd look for guys under 25 and we're also going to the draft because we want to build a sustainably strong list."

Bolton has impressed with his 'reset' at Carlton in his first year in charge, leading last year's wooden-spooners to seven wins.

"Really succinctly, the main reflection is – and we want people to hear this – we're now a united footy club and we've build really strong relationships across our whole club, so that's what we're most proud of," he said.

The Blues have a golden opportunity to finish the season on a high note and consign arch-rivals Essendon to its first wooden spoon since 1933 on Saturday at the MCG, in Dale Thomas' 200th match.

"I think some people may think the game's a dead rubber, but it's far from that. We want to play right to the end – and no doubt Essendon does as well," Bolton said.

"We're arch-rivals and it's the last chance for us to go and perform for our members."

The Blues have brought back Sam Kerridge and Jack Silvagni for the clash, while Ed Curnow (knee) misses and forward Andrejs Everitt has been dropped for the third time in seven games.

Everitt was Carlton's leading goalkicker last season and is sitting equal-third on the club's goal tally this season with 17 majors.

"I'm not publicly going into conversations about what players are doing well and areas they need to improve on, but there's some growth areas that we're addressing and he's (Everitt) really clear on them," Bolton said.

"To Andrejs' credit, he's working hard to make that more consistent."

Meanwhile, Bolton said there were positive signs out-of-contract spearhead Levi Casboult would remain at the club next season.