CARLTON coach Brett Ratten admits Collingwood did his side no favours in defeating Geelong at the weekend, with the reigning premiers certain to come out firing against the Blues at Telstra Dome on Saturday night.
While Ratten lamented the poor timing, he felt the match would be a huge learning experience for his young side, which had taken plenty away from how the Pies went about dismantling the Cats.
"I think it was a lesson for everyone," Ratten said of the 85-point drubbing.
"I suppose if you bring that game to the table, it doesn't matter if you play Geelong, Hawthorn or the Bulldogs, you're in with a chance.
"Tackle pressure is nearly the most important aspect of the game. It's just shown that, even as young players, if you do that well -- even without winning the ball -- you can have an impact and assist the team.
“Geelong are a great team, they looked just a little bit off, but they’ll be in the Grand Final again. What a challenge for our group to cop a great team like Geelong on the rebound.
“I think it will be a great lesson for our younger blokes to go and play on the Mooneys and the Abletts and these types to learn how the great players of the competition play.
“I think it will be a great teaching lesson for our boys to learn from a team that’s got stars through it and the way they go about it.”
Blues champion Chris Judd will take the field despite persistent rumours of an ongoing groin problem.
"It's funny; all of our players said that the ground was fairly hard last week,” he said.
“They felt it (soreness after the match) a little bit more, but that was just a general statement."
The Blues have lost backman Jarryd Waite for the match after he unsuccessfully fought a one-match ban for striking Fremantle’s Chris Mayne, but the side will be boosted by the returns of Cameron Cloke and Bret Thornton from injury.
While disappointed to lose Waite, the coach wasn’t displeased with the physicality of his players against the Dockers, and made special mention of Setanta O’hAilpin’s performance in curbing Matthew Pavlich.
“It’s good to let the crazy Irishman out and let him go for it,” he said with a smile.
“He played on Pavlich … and I thought his performance was pretty good. He kept him to five possessions to half-time; I thought he played really well.
“I think we need to bring that physicality to the game every week, (and) not just one bloke. Across the board, we shouldn’t take a backward step.”
Ratten would not be drawn on full-forward Brendan Fevola's contract situation, but a club official revealed negotiations would not proceed until Fevola had finalised his personal management team.
“That’s for Greg Swann and Stephen Icke to work that out; I keep out of that,” Ratten said.
“I worry about how we’re going to move the ball, who’s going to stop Ablett … we’ll let the contract talks get done behind the scenes.”
With other stars such as Waite, Marc Murphy and Brad Fisher also coming out of contract at the end of the year, the coach did admit he would like to see the club do everything possible to make sure they all remained in navy blue ahead of the introduction of the Gold Coast team.
