AT THIS time of the year, if you're hanging around the bottom of the eight, or sitting just outside it, every game is a crunch game. A veritable eight-pointer.

So it's no surprise Carlton has one this week when they take on the Saints at the MCG on Friday night.

The ninth-placed Blues are less than two per cent behind the Saints in eighth, and are coming off another eight-pointer, when they beat Richmond at the MCG before the break to all but sink the finals chances of the boys from Punt Rd.

Carlton assistant coach Brett Montgomery said the round-14 clash had both been a good way to go in to the weekend off, and a demonstration of the fighting spirit in the Blues.

"I thought it was a perfect step for this week, going in to a break with the guys stepping away for a few days," he said on Thursday morning.

"There's an enormous amount of spirit amongst the young guys here, and certainly the way we've been able to come back in games is not something that you usually relate to young groups.

"Usually you don't find that they've got that real will to stay in games once things don't go their way, so that's been one thing, especially of late, that we've been impressed with."

With a finals spot up for grabs, Montgomery said there was no need to make the point to the players, preferring to keep working on the way the team plays.

"I don't think so – we've had a lot of these types of games where we've … like Richmond, for example, in the last game, that was probably one of their biggest games for the year, and we certainly did the job there.

"We've had a number of games like that – we're not really driven by results at the moment, I don't think we can afford to be like that.

"If we're still in the mix – and it's fantastic to be spoken about in the mix this time of year, something that hasn't been around here for a while – it's exciting, but not something we really dwell on."