CARLTON knows the stakes, and knows the dichotomy of the situation it's in.

Finals football is the minimum expectation at Ikon Park this season. Last year's heartbreaking finish, where the Blues fell narrowly short of breaking a September drought that is now into its 10th consecutive season, only emphasised that further.

But the club also knows the danger that such an expectation presents. While Carlton desperately wants to embrace its position, and accept its improvement, it brings a weekly narrative that is difficult to avoid. Every result is measured against the expectation, precariously carrying the risk of subconsciously shifting the focus of its playing group too far into the future.

It's why the Blues have put so much effort into adopting a fresh, new mindset over the summer. Under second-year coach Michael Voss, the macro aspects of the club's ambitions have been prioritised. Yes, finals football is still on the agenda in 2023. But it's hoped what the Blues become years into the future will overshadow that, ensuring finals football becomes the minimum expectation and not the end-goal.

"No doubt, we acknowledge the expectations. I think we'd have our head in the sand if we didn't think there was a narrative around that for us. But what we've been heavily focused on is making sure we become something, not just have something," Voss told AFL.com.au.

"The way we see ourselves doesn't just hinge on where we finish. There is the immediate future and there is the long-term future. For us, we have some high ambitions around what we want that to look like. If we keep going to work on ourselves, then we know what the end-result will look like.

"We also know that unless you are absolutely 100 per cent present and in the moment with what you're doing in front of you and your mind is not constantly drifting forward of where you are right now … that's very, very dangerous to have your mindset drifting off into the future and working out what things mean when we haven't even bounced a ball yet."

So, did that happen last season? Having started the campaign with an impressive 8-2 record, sitting comfortably inside the AFL's top four at the season's halfway point, Carlton infamously lost eight of its final 12 matches. Needing just one win from its last four games to ensure its September drought would be snapped, it lost all four.

Did the club's thoughts "drift off into the future" in those crucial moments, as Voss alluded to? Or did the moment, and that dangerous narrative surrounding Carlton's lofty expectations, become too much for the club to handle when the pressure was ramped up towards the end of the campaign?

"I think the moment was big," Voss said.

"(But) it came from care. It probably showed just how much they wanted it. We all know we want to get there. What's really, really important is that there's patience around that. We don't need to panic on it.

"We've got a program that we've been running that we've got some real clarity around. We've gone to work on the way we want to play and we've got more clarity around that. We continue to reinforce the selfless behaviours that are required within the team environment, to be able to support us in those really big moments.

"We've gone to work on those moments and how we become more efficient and more effective in those moments. If something was to show itself again – and it will – then we're fully equipped and we've got the capacity to meet the demand. That's what we've been focusing on."

One glaring Carlton downfall was the common denominator within those crucial moments that frequently went against the Blues last season, that being the side's frustrating and ongoing inability to close out games from winning positions.

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Never was that more evident than in the side's one-point defeat to Collingwood in round 23, where Carlton led by as much as 25 points in the final quarter, missed pivotal and easily convertible shots at goal, and conceded the game's final five majors to lose by one solitary point. It was hardly a one-off, either. Just one week prior, Melbourne forward Kysaiah Pickett's winning goal came with just 11 seconds left in the game, when victory would have propelled Voss' team into the finals.

Even some Blues victories came with regrettable lapses in momentum, in hindsight. Earlier in the season, they held on to defeat the Western Bulldogs by just 12 points having previously led by 37. They beat Hawthorn by just one point having earlier led by 41. They beat Port Adelaide by three points having once held a 50-point advantage.

A win's a win, right? Not when percentage comes into play, like it did last season when Carlton ultimately finished ninth by just 0.6 percent to the eighth-placed Bulldogs. It's why ironing out the wild fluctuations in performance has mattered to the Blues this summer, as they seek to become an improved side across the board.

"Talent brings capacity and coaching brings consistency. We're trying to establish that consistency. There's no doubt that there's a real capacity within this group to be able to play some pretty exciting footy," Voss said.

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"It's shown that it's actually quite measurable against some of the best in the competition, but that's not really useful unless we actually do it on a consistent basis. The season demands us to be able to play at that sort of level for 24 rounds to get to where we want to go.

"There have been lots of conversations around that, around how we take those moments better. But, more importantly, how do we become more consistent in our actions? How do we become more consistent in our game actions that we need to be able to deliver on game day, no matter where we play or the conditions?

"We need to be really strong in what we want to play like, despite any challenge that we get thrown at us. It's been a big conversation for us this year. Fortunately, we are still operating with a really clear idea on what it looks like. But our ability to be able to replicate it is something that's obviously occupied a fair bit of our conversations so far."

For all of the frustration that last year dished out to those at Ikon Park as a result of not making the finals, Carlton's 12-win season was still its best campaign since it last qualified for September action back in 2013. And there's more to come.

Speaking in the midst of his first pre-season in charge of the Blues just 12 months ago, Voss cautioned that it would take longer than one year to implement a new approach and an entirely new philosophy. So, how much longer until the entirety of the coach's grand plan comes to fruition?

With the reigning Brownlow medallist in Patrick Cripps at his disposal, the last two Coleman Medal winners in Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay, and three further All-Australians in Adam Saad, Sam Docherty and Sam Walsh, the talent on Carlton's list is obvious. Now, it's about putting those pieces together across 24 weeks of footy.

"If you look at 2022, there was probably an acknowledgement of how far we've come. If anything, 2023 will almost show us how far we've got to go. We'll find that out, how far we've got to go," Voss said.

"With what we have put in place, we feel like we've got another body of work within the group that gives them an extra layer of detail in what we're trying to play like and what we want our environment to look like and how we can support each other.

"There is a level, at least an external expectation, around what we're supposed to be and where we're supposed to finish. I'd say also there's an internal drive to be able to see some of that through. It's a pretty hungry group and they definitely want to get the most out of themselves.

"We know we want to figure in the back-end of the season, but we also know that if we take our eye off what we need to be able to do right now then it'll cost us. The focus has been pretty fixated on what we need to be able to get done, then we'll start to lift our eyes into the season and see where it takes us."