SENIOR Coach David Teague said he would back in his forward group despite the absence of Harry McKay.

McKay was announced as an exclusion from the Round 4 side to take on Essendon, with last year’s leading goalkicker to miss with bruised ribs.

While the three talls in attack worked so well for Carlton last week, Teague said the Blues had the personnel to fire up forward this Saturday night.

Speaking to media, Teague said Carlton was capable of kicking a winning score against the arch rival.

“The next guy will step up: Mitch and Levi will give us a great contest, Jack Silvagni can play a little bit taller and Jack Martin can mark the ball in the front half,” Teague said.

“We’ve got a game style and it doesn’t matter who plays that role: they’ve got to execute it.

“I think we’ve got an exciting mix down there… they can bring the ball to ground and their pressure can come from the front.”

While it’s been an interrupted preparation of sorts for both Blues and Bombers, Teague said there would be no excuses come the ball being bounced tomorrow night.

He said the importance for Carlton would continue to be placed on playing its own way and starting strongly.

“We’re going to control what we can control and focus on us,” he said.

“They’ll come out hungry and we’re ready for that. We learned a lesson last week.

“People were writing us off against Geelong in Geelong. We can’t control what people write, what we can control is our effort.”