HE'S STEPPED back from a negating role in recent weeks, but midfielder Brady Rawlings may become his usual miserly self when North Melbourne meets Carlton at Telstra Dome on Sunday.

Carlton's run to the finals, boosted by the form of captain Chris Judd, Nick Stevens and young guns Marc Murphy and Bryce Gibbs, has gathered momentum through the work of its talented ball-winners.

Add their primary target in attack, full-forward Brendan Fevola, and the Blues at their best are a formidable outfit.

That showed in last weekend's 66-point defeat of Port Adelaide, which kept Carlton in touch with the top eight.

"I don't see Carlton as being a side that's below us," Rawlings said. "I think their footy the last few weeks has been exceptional.

"Their midfield's really their strength and also with Fev (Brendan Fevola). It's going to be a big game ... because I reckon if they make the eight they're as good a chance as we are."

Rawlings, North Melbourne's best tagger and the most effective in the competition in 2004 and 2006, has run with Judd and Stevens before but may find a younger opponent this time.

No. 1 draft picks Murphy and Gibbs have taken giant strides in 2008, while Shaun Grigg earned last round's NAB AFL Rising Star nomination.

"They've got plenty of blokes through there that'll win them the ball with Judd and Stevens and Murphy and Gibbs and (Andrew) Walker," Rawlings said.

"Then you've got Kade Simpson and Grigg was great on the weekend as well. That's definitely their strength and I'm sure I'll be playing on one of them, but I'm not too sure whether it will be a purely tagging role or not.

"But [I'll] definitely set myself to be in for a lot of work this week."

Rawlings, who signed a two-year contract extension in June, has moved away from his early season stopping jobs and, since round nine, has had no fewer than 21 possessions.

"It seems to have changed a bit this year," he said of his role. "I think probably the first four or five weeks I was purely tagging blokes and wasn't getting any of the ball myself.

"When you're playing through the midfield you've sort of got to get your hands on the ball. You can't be really going through there and just worrying about the one bloke and not getting any of it yourself.

"If there's a player that's pretty dangerous out there, I've still been going to them at stages in games but it hasn't been for the full match.

"With (former Bulldog) Sam Power in the side as well, we can both do that sort of role during the game. We might play on a bloke for a half each."