"I SHOULD let you in on my golden rule, and my golden rule is 'I do not respond to crap'."

Over at Princes Park in the early afternoon, Carlton heavyweights were glowing in their praise of Brendan Fevola, who had just signed a new three-year deal with the Blues.

But out west at the Whitten Oval, a couple of hours earlier, Jason Akermanis was not joining in the love-fest, after the Carlton spearhead had called the Dogs 'unaccountable' after they gave up a six goal lead as the Blues ran all over them at Telstra Dome late on Sunday afternoon.

But the Brownlow Medallist admitted that work-rates had to increase in the kennel, despite increased training loads.

“We've had a couple of bad quarters in the last two weeks, and they've cost us games, for sure," he said. "But when you play in the midfield and you're not getting your hands on the ball, and then you play up forward and the ball's not coming down, all of a sudden it seems to be everything's going against you.

"We've got a lot of things to work on, but we're not that far off it – we've just got to get it right for four quarters.

"Our midfield knows it, our backline knows it, our forward line knows it – our work-rate's got to be up.

"We've got to start winning the contested ball, and perhaps that will start to turn the results our way."

With that in mind, Akermanis said he couldn't have picked a better team to play this weekend, but denied the team was in a rut.

"There's no better side – I'm glad we're playing Sydney, because they're such a good one-on-one side.

"But it doesn't matter who you're up against – I've got to work harder.

"You shouldn't ever let yourself believe that (being in a rut) because it's trouble. I think, if you've got talent and you persist, it will change.

"There's no doubt I've got to lift my workrate and things will turn.

"I've been around long enough, and I've known that if it does go a little bit south, it's more from my point-of-view just thinking too much – I'm worried about stuff I shouldn't be.