FRIDAY night's encounter with Essendon at the MCG looms as a pivotal game in Carlton's season.

Both sides are locked together on six wins and six losses, and Brett Ratten didn't try to play down the importance of getting a win over the traditional rival when he spoke to the media on Tuesday.

"I think the opportunity to help catapult your season up the ladder will be a huge bonus for both teams," he said.

"I think it could give one team that extra boost that maybe pushes them into an opportunity to tackle that last spot in the [top] four.

Ratten believed that, with both teams splitting wins and losses equally, the match was a chance for the winner to open up an important gap between it and the logjam of teams competing for finals positions.

He was also mindful of the recent record against Essendon that Carlton will carry into the game.

"In terms of rivalry, this is a huge one for us, to play the arch-enemy that has had the wood on us on the last few occasions."

The Blues gave up an early lead to be defeated by just four points in the round-three clash against the Dons and Ratten admitted that game had formed part of his build-up for the return match.

"We just reminded the players that our last performance against Essendon was not where we'd like it," he said.

"When you've played those tight games against teams that you've got a great rivalry against over many, many years I think you sort of bring that to the fore [in preparation] and we've done that."

Bret Thornton is the only likely change to the side that pushed the unbeaten Saints all the way before the mid-season break, with the defender to be given until Thursday to prove he has recovered from a hamstring strain.

Despite the strong showing against the ladder leaders, Ratten said he was looking for improvement in his players' intensity after tinkering with the way he sent them on their time off this season.

It's not the only thing the Blues have changed. The club's membership slogan 'they know we're coming' was a big talking point leading into the round-three match and, while Ratten is right behind the catchphrase, he admitted he was taking a slightly different approach with his players at this point of the season.

"A couple of weeks ago we thought it was time to probably pull back," he said.

"Everyone knows our slogan so from a marketing and membership point of view I think it's been a great tactic for us.

"Now it's 'let's pull our horns in a bit' and let our actions do some talking.

"It's a bit like a tennis game; the ball's in our court. We've got 10 games to go and we have an opportunity here. It's how we can return that serve this week against Essendon and so on [down the line]. I think it's back to us now."   

Ratten nominated Essendon small forward Alwyn Davey as the most likely target for tagger Aaron Joseph who celebrated his breakout season with a Rising Star nomination this week.