THE DEGREE to which Carlton can contain twin threats Jonathan Brown and Daniel Bradshaw will be a key factor in Saturday night’s match against the Brisbane Lions, and assistant coach Mark Riley says the Blues are as prepared as they can be.

Riley is looking forward to seeing how his young defenders take on the challenge, but added they won’t be left alone to tackle the imposing Lion forwards.  

“You’re never confident [you’ve got everything covered] going into playing a team with two awesome forwards and a great midfield, but our young defence has really grown this year,” Riley said on Friday.

“I think (with) the way we play as a team, we’ve assisted them with some other defensive mechanisms that we’ve put in place.

“I just see it as another great learning environment for whoever gets them; Jarrad Waite, Paul Bower and Michael Jamison have been doing a very good job down there, so obviously two of those three, and Setanta O’hAilpin might get a crack as well.

“[But] it’s never up to the individuals; it’s up to the team. We just look at these opportunities as sort of a checkpoint to see where we’re actually at; what a great opportunity for our young guys, our young team, to pit themselves against a team that’s top-eight material.”

Richard Hadley returns to face his old side after shaking off a groin strain and Cain Ackland was chosen for his first game of the season as the replacement for the injured Cameron Cloke.

Riley revealed Ackland got the nod ahead of youngster Shaun Hampson thanks to his slightly better form in the VFL and the Blues’ desire to have a mature-bodied ruckman partner Matthew Kreuzer against Brisbane bruiser Jamie Charman.

Riley has overseen the midfield unit since joining the club in the off-season from Melbourne, and he’s been pleased with the progress made considering the new personnel added to the group.

“The midfield at Carlton this year is quite different to the midfield that Carlton had last year,” he said.

“We’ve obviously got Chris Judd in and Nick Stevens back. Stevens came in for a bit of criticism early, but some of that’s a little unfair; he had 12 months off with a very, very serious [neck] injury.

“When guys come back from knee reconstructions, everyone gives them 12 months leniency; they can have 20 games of playing like a spud and everyone goes ‘that’s okay, he’s done a knee’. Nick had a career-threatening injury, so he’s getting better and better.

“We’re developing what we think is a deeper midfield. We’ve still got a long way to go, but one of the things that we’ve focused on is scores against from stop plays.

“We haemorrhaged in the last two years in that area and we’ve managed to get a fair bit better at that.”