Brendon Bolton believes his Carlton side showed plenty of endeavour in Saturday’s 19-point loss to Hawthorn in Launceston but said it must ‘learn and evolve’ to become a team that capitalises on periods where it holds the ascendancy in games.

Having kept the Hawks to just three behinds in a tight second term, the Blues coughed up the first four goals of the third quarter and saw the margin balloon out to 32 points before they rallied with four majors of their own to set up a compelling fight to the final siren.

“We’re on the right track in terms of effort, there’s no doubt about that,” Bolton said.

“We’re a team that needs to keep evolving and we think by-and-large we’re giving a lot of effort and trying really hard, but as I said last week we need to be a team that learns and evolves to hurt the opposition when we get our opportunities.

“It’s just about doing it for longer.”

Having come off narrow defeats at the hands of the Swans and Eagles in the two previous rounds, Bolton was satisfied his side is on the right track and said the playing group is maintaining an optimistic outlook.

“We’ve played in the last few weeks West Coast, Sydney and Hawthorn and they’ve been deep into finals, so we understand there’s progress (and) the gap’s been fairly close, so (the players) feel a sense of growth and when you feel growth you don’t get deflated.

“However, I must reiterate, we’re not absolving ourselves from the responsibility. We want to evolve into a team that not only tries hard and gets close but makes teams pay when we need to.”

Among the positives for Bolton were the efforts of Patrick Cripps (31 disposals including 18 contested and 11 clearances), Zach Tuohy (35 disposals and six inside 50) and young forward Jack Silvagni who worked tirelessly to pressure the Hawthorn defence and was eventually rewarded with a goal in the final term

“Jack showed some things in the last quarter so there’s some positive signs,” Bolton said, going on to suggest that the 18-year-old’s tackling pressure should be an example to the whole side.

“It needs to typify our whole club,” he said.

Bolton was also positive about Marc Murphy’s prognosis despite not having a firm timeline available for the skipper’s return to the side.

“I’d hope in the next few weeks,” he said. “I’d love to be really definitive but it’s been an ankle injury that has hung around.

“I’m fairly confident to say he’ll play before the end of the year, but don’t lock me to that.”