CARLTON coach Brendon Bolton insists the "steely resolve" of his players will ensure the Blues bounce back against Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday.
Bolton said the playing group had owned its poor mindset entering last week's 58-point capitulation to North Melbourne, led by captain Patrick Cripps.
Now preparing for a rampant Pies outfit, the coach has sensed a hunger from his players to improve on Carlton's 1-6 win-loss record this season.
"Sometimes when something like this happens you don't need to say a lot to the players, you can just sense they want to respond," Bolton said.
"It's the steely resolve.
"One game doesn't define or take us off course that we don't believe we can't compete with teams.
"We can catastrophise that, (with) one game, we're annoyed and frustrated with. But if you go to the base of the whole year, there's been more than four quarters to look at. "There's enough evidence to say we can compete with them (Collingwood)."
As questions over Carlton's rebuild get louder with just four wins from the past 39 matches, Bolton said he wouldn't be drawn on the outside noise.
"Our club has got a real maturity about not letting the noise take us off direction of what we need to improve on and what we're doing well," he said.
"We're keeping to our strategy and that gives us strength within."
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One such voice this week was Collingwood president Eddie McGuire, who suggested on Triple M that the Blues would be negligent not to approach Alastair Clarkson as the club's future coach.
"I understand the role of the media, it's an opinion-based industry," Bolton said when quizzed on McGuire's comments.
"Eddie's in the media, he has to give opinions. I think for quite a while Eddie's liked 'Clarko', why wouldn't you?
"We really respect the role of opinions and media because it generates interest, it's why we love the game, it gets people talking.
"The distraction, if you don't understand it for that reason, if that infiltrates you, you're in the wrong space. And I'm not in that space."
Bolton wouldn't be drawn on the make-up of his defence for Saturday's clash as the Blues attempt to contend with Jordan De Goey, Brody Mihocek and Ben Reid.
While Liam Jones is expected to miss just one week with concussion, Bolton flagged the potential of Mitch McGovern or Levi Casboult moving into defence to cover his absence.
"We're probably going to mix things up with positions, probably not going to allude to exactly what that's going to look like at the moment," he said.
"(We'll) probably be slightly more creative this week with where they play."
The Blues enjoyed a light captain's run on Friday morning, joined for a photo by their mums who were invited into the club ahead of Mother's Day.
Carlton legend Greg Williams was also on the track as he begins his new role working with midfielders Patrick Cripps and Paddy Dow.
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