CARLTON endured a week of tough "bring your mouthguard" training sessions leading up to Sunday's clash with Collingwood, midfielder Ed Curnow says.
The Blues conceded 12 unanswered goals in the first half against the Dockers the week earlier, before responding with a far more competitive performance against the Pies.
Despite playing the majority of the match with just two players on the bench, Carlton fought valiantly to never let the margin balloon beyond 25 points.
Curnow believes the side's improved effort was a result of a tough week of training, with the Blues hoping to take the lessons learnt on the track into their future games.
"It was a bit more old school," Curnow told SEN on Monday.
"It was a bit of 'bring your mouthguards', one-on-one, competitive work, extra running, competitive running … all little parts that you add on to training, on top of your normal system drills."
Carlton coach Brendon Bolton said last week his players challenged each other on the track, with Curnow reiterating his message following a 20-point loss to Collingwood.
"During the week, we had a couple of brutal training sessions and we went hard," he said.
"The coach basically said, 'If you're not going to do it on game day, you can do it at training'. They're the type of habits that we have to keep working on to bring that type of footy."
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