MICK Malthouse is confident Carlton will re-sign out-of-contract small forward Eddie Betts, and has dismissed suggestions the Blues have already decided to turnover at least 10 players at season's end.
Malthouse also said the Blues were yet to consider which players, if any, they might consider for trade.
Contract negotiations between the Blues and Betts haven't progressed as quickly as expected, but Malthouse believes the club will keep its man.
Ahead of another must-win clash against the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, the coach addressed speculation that he would cut deeply into a playing list that sits ninth, two games out of the top eight.
"As far as cutting lists go, it's an atrocious word to be used in a football club. It is reality," he said. "In my case, I call it moving players on in an elite sporting environment when the club is currently ninth.
"People have used the 10, but when you say, 'Who are the 10?', they can't tell you the 10 because they make up a number. I can't tell you whether it's 10; it may be the bare minimum, maybe three. We had three last year.
"Ten's a pluck-out-of-the-air. It sounds great because 10's a double-digit number, but reality is that I haven't sat down with the recruiting staff, not our football operations manager and said, 'They're the players that will go out of the side. We've got a hint of who hasn't performed at the level we expect.
"We don't go looking at our list as a witch-hunt … We've got this season to complete, and we want to go as long and hard as we can."
Betts, a two-time leading goalkicker at Carlton, sits 86th overall in the Official AFL Player Ratings, a drop from his pre-season position of 41st.
Malthouse said hard-nut Mitch Robinson h ad been dropped after lapsing into a comfort zone and not always adhering to structures.
"He hasn’t produced at the level we expect," Malthouse said. "He's a quality player and a tickle like that doesn’t hurt anyone … He's running on four cylinders for a six-cylinder car …
"He'll be a better player for us when he understands exactly where I'm coming from … If there's a pack there, he'll be on the bottom of it, but there's more to football than just showing those sort of attributes."
The Blues will be without injured pair Matthew Kreuzer and Andrew Carrazzo, both of whom have calf injuries, and the omitted Kane Lucas, who appears to have run out of steam after a breakthrough season.
Malthouse said Kreuzer could return next week while Carrazzo is likely to be sidelined for two games.
Into the line-up are star forward Jarrad Waite, Robert Warnock, Troy Menzel and Josh Bootsma.
Malthouse is confident Warnock will acquit himself well against potential All Australian big man Will Minson.
"Robert Warnock has been a very, very good ruckman for us … In fact he is No.1 at our club in terms of percentage times played, scoring from. So he's a ready-made replacement," he said.
Malthouse also expects skipper Marc Murphy will bounce back after being restricted to just 13 disposals by Fremantle tagger Ryan Crowley.
The Blues coach is wary of the Bulldogs, who he believes have been in "very, very good form" and have few deficiencies.
Bryce Gibbs will play his 150th game on Saturday night and Malthouse said he would like Gibbs to improve his consistency. However, Malthouse acknowledged the classy runner was probably a victim of a side that is "still finding its feet" because he is required to play a variety of roles.
Ben Collins is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_BenCollins
