ANDREW Walker and Mitch Robinson will return to the Carlton line-up as the Blues attempt to keep their faint finals hopes alive with a win against the Brisbane Lions on Saturday night.
Carlton's chances of making the finals took a big hit with last weekend's 22-point loss to the Sydney Swans, which left the club in 11th spot on the ladder, two wins behind North Melbourne (seventh), Essendon (eighth) and Fremantle (ninth).
But even with the Blues only an outside chance to make the eight, coach Brett Ratten has turned up the heat on the entire club and demanded a strong finish to the home-and-away season.
"If our expectations on each other diminish, I think that allows you to play poor footy or [display] some of the behaviours that you don't want to see out on the field … then you open yourself up for criticism," he said from Visy Park on Wednesday.
"I've been a lot firmer internally, not just with the players but with the staff as well, to make sure that those expectations don't waver.
"[In] testing times or through adversity, do you just take your eye off the football or [say], 'It doesn't matter so much?'
"Those types of questions that might pop into your head - we don't waver and I drive that. I'm the leader of the football team and the club on the footy side of things … so I can't change and accept those behaviours whether we're at the top of the ladder or at the bottom of the ladder.
"I need to be the driver of that and I won't change whether it's players or staff."
Ratten's relief at regaining Walker and Robinson from calf injuries is tempered by the disappointment of losing full-back Michael Jamison to a hamstring strain for one to two weeks.
It's been a common theme for the coach in a season where injuries and, to a lesser degree, suspension have loomed large at the selection table each week.
Ratten has been keen not to lean on those factors as an excuse for not fulfilling his pre-season pledge to make the top four, but said they will be taken into account when reviewing the season.
"If they're the facts then you can't shy from the facts," he said.
"If you've had a huge amount of injuries you've got to actually look at it and say, 'They are the facts'.
"But then from a team performance [point of view] what did we do on the field with that personnel?
"I think it's not just one way or the other to say, 'No you failed because you didn't make top four' or 'We had injuries as an excuse' - I think it's a combination.
"I think actually going back and reviewing when and how our season panned out is critical in regards to who was available, how we played and what the result was."
