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CARLTON midfielder Andrew Carrazzo says his team is primed for a crack at reigning premier Hawthorn.
Fresh from Sunday's convincing win over the Western Bulldogs, Carrazzo said the Blues were well placed for an assault on bogey team the Hawks.
“There's no breaks and easy games, so there's no better challenge than against the reigning premiers,” Carrazzo said at Visy Park on Monday morning.
“They've embarrassed us probably the last few years and there's no [better] time to challenge ourselves against one of the best couple of teams in the comp.”
On Sunday, the Blues kicked 21 goals against 2008 preliminary finalist the Bulldogs, with Carrazzo saying the most pleasing aspect of the scoresheet was the spread of goalkickers.
Star full-forward Brendan Fevola kicked three majors, but eleven other Blues contributed goals making the team a much more dangerous prospect according to the nuggety midfielder.
“That's going to be the key,” Carrazzo said.
“I think in previous years, we've probably relied too much on Fev and if we're serious about playing finals footy and being successful ... it's probably not going to be best for us.
“So I think he’s happy, I’m sure he’s happy playing that role where he’s doing the other stuff, so that’s probably the key to us winning more games.”
The Blues entered Sunday’s clash on the back of two straight losses to Essendon and the Sydney Swans, so the convincing 43-point demolition of the Bulldogs was just the tonic Brett Ratten’s side needed ahead of their showdown with the Hawks.
Carrazzo, who returned for his first senior match of 2009, said his team had been desperate to return to the winner’s list.
“I don’t know, as someone might have said, if it was a case of us drinking our own bathwater,” Carrazzo said.
“We probably just had two bad performances [against Essendon and the Swans]. It was good to bounce back, just for our own self-belief against a good team.”
The prolific ball-winner, who had a run-with role on Bulldogs playmaker Lindsay Gilbee on Sunday, said Ratten had mentioned the ailing health of former president Richard Pratt as motivation ahead of the match – and the players were hell-bent on a strong showing.
“I’m not going to lie; it was a motivating factor,” he said.
“Especially for the players that have been around here the last few years and have seen, you know that we genuinely were on our knees and there were stories of us being insolvent and all sorts of stuff.
“But Dick’s come in and taken us back to the place where many Carlton supporters think we should be.”
