SENIOR coach Brendon Bolton believes that Carlton’s Round 7 performance against North Melbourne is not reflective of the progress the team has made so far this year.

Carlton was comprehensively accounted for by a North Melbourne team fuelled by their own external scrutiny, with the Blues going down by 58 points in their biggest loss of the year. 

While the Blues were outplayed throughout the game, Bolton was adamant that the game could be considered an anomaly in what has been a season of positives. 

“Don’t blur one game with what a season is, because there’s lots of signs of progress,” Bolton said following the game

“If you dig deep, there’s been a lot of progress this year. Again, we’re not blurring that with we’re satisfied we have only one win.

“For me, to talk about some of the progress that’s hidden underneath the win-loss, the timing’s not right now.” 

The Blues struggled to demonstrate the ball movement and chemistry of previous weeks, which saw them dominate the game for a win over the Western Bulldogs and fall narrowly short against a fast-finishing Hawthorn last week. 

While the Blues were missing key players in Kade Simpson, Nic Newman, Mitch McGovern and Matthew Kreuzer, Bolton was quick not to let this be an excuse.

Rather, the focus of the coach’s honest post-match appearance was a lack of intensity and execution which led to players and coaches asking “hard questions of each other” following the game.

“This game requires you to be mentally prepared, and you only have to be one percent off in that preparation at this level and it can really hurt,” he said. 

“What percentage we were off? It’s hard to put a figure on it, but we were off and they got us early.”

Carlton will now spend the next six days preparing for the clash with traditional rivals Collingwood next Saturday at the MCG.

While it will be determined during the week whether defender Liam Jones will be fit for selection, the Blues could benefit from the return of both McGovern and Kreuzer for the crucial game.

"(Kreuzer) makes a hell of a difference to us, so he's in the mix, then it's what mix we put in there," he said.

"If we bring him back with (Andrew) Phillips, Levi (Casboult) and 'Kreuz', what does that look like? We're yet to determine that, but we know he's like a ruck-rover. 

"McGovern should be available next week and I'd have to look at how the twos went – I'm not even sure – so there'd be guys to consider."