FINALS were out of reach for Sam Walsh early in his AFL career so the Carlton star is simply excited by the Blues having to earn a drought-breaking top-eight spot the hard way.
After racing to 8-2 in Michael Voss' first season as coach, Carlton's injury list has stacked up and form has deserted them on the run home.
The Blues were still a top-four chance a fortnight ago but, after consecutive defeats, they are 12-8 and now have to defeat reigning premier Melbourne or red-hot Collingwood to secure their first finals berth since 2013.
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They may have to do it without captain Patrick Cripps, unless the club can overturn his two-match ban for rough conduct against the Brisbane Lions' Callum Ah Chee at the Tribunal on Tuesday night.
The No.1 draft pick in 2018, Walsh had to endure the spectre of two coach sackings – Brendon Bolton and David Teague – during his first three years at Carlton.
Rather than being daunted by potentially falling out of the top eight after spending the entire season in it, Walsh cannot wait for the challenge.
"We have to embrace it as an awesome opportunity," Walsh said at Ikon Park on Tuesday.
"I've been at the club now four years, and this is the opportunity we've been asking for to be able to play in these big games in front of big crowds.
MEDICAL ROOM Check out the full injury list
"I'm going to see it as time for us to really stand up and we're going to take a step forward in the right direction this week.
"We would have killed to be in this position in past years so we just have to have some optimism in the way we want to go about it."
Fellow Carlton star Harry McKay insists the Blues would still consider their 2022 campaign a success even if they fail to make the finals.
"I judge success in terms of our environment that we've created," the reigning Coleman medallist told Fox Sports on Monday night.
"The last couple of years, we've probably struggled in terms of culture, environment, putting in a really solid game plan.
"As a player that's been there seven, eight years, this 12 months has been a success and whether that comes as finals or whatever it is, we've taken a really big step into the right direction.
"(Voss) talked about it, hopefully it's a long book and this is just chapter one, we want to finish off the chapter really well but it's definitely a success."