BRENDAN Fevola's struggles against St Kilda last week highlighted the imbalance in Carlton's forward set-up, but Gavin Crosisca says the coaching panel has already put plenty of work into sharing the load.
"We've been working on it, we know it's an issue for us, we don't want to be Fev-oriented and we know that we can't be completely successful if he's the only target up there," Crosisca said ahead of the Blues' final training session before taking on the Sydney Swans on Sunday.
"There's an imbalance; we know that. We don't tell the boys to kick it to Fev seven times out of 10, put it that way, but he presents well.
"We've been working on a longer kick to the top of the square if Fev isn't in the best position … but we've got to get our other forwards to get into a position to create a contest at the top of the square as well."
Crosisca disputed the notion it was a good time to catch the Swans despite the absence of Barry Hall and Amon Buchanan, which he said made their forward line more unpredictable.
The Swans' midfield unit is highly-regarded for its hard work in and around the many stoppages they create, but Crosisca said the Blues had put an emphasis on improving that area of their game.
"We've got a fantastic midfield also, so it will be interesting to see how they go with the match-ups on our midfield. I think they'd be pretty concerned with the guys we have in there," he said.
"Not to say hardness was an issue, but there were some efforts last week that probably weren't as good as we would expect from our players so I would think that we'll be coming out a lot stronger and a lot harder in the first quarter this week.
"We're growing and getting stronger with every game, even the losses, we're learning well and the boys are absorbing everything that Ratts is putting in front of them."
With the game to be played under the roof at Telstra Dome and wet weather in Melbourne on Friday the Blues conducted their final training session indoors at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.