CARLTON assistant coach Brett Montgomery is confident the much-improved effort shown in last week’s big win over Essendon will carry over into the final three weeks of the home-and-away season.

The Blues face Richmond, Geelong and Fremantle to finish out the minor round and Montgomery believes his club is well-positioned to attack the trying fixture after righting the ship against the Bombers.

“We think we’re on the way up again. The curve is good and we saw a lot of things that we thought were really positive [last week],” Montgomery said after a light training run at Visy Park on Friday.

“We certainly haven’t been in the form we would have liked [prior to that]. We’ve played some good sides and hit a flat spot, which you can often do at this time of year, then you factor in the young group, but at the end of all that there are no excuses.

“We’ve certainly let our group know that over the last month, particularly last week when I think you saw a nice angry side that bounced really well.

“The words used [this week] have been ‘backing up’, but not so much about the win, more backing up the performance, backing up the effort and that ferocity.”

Brett Ratten took his men outside onto the wet, slippery surface of Visy Park on Friday for the short session after taking the team indoors for Wednesday’s main hit-out.

“The intensity has been right back where we need it to be,” Montgomery said of the side’s preparation.

“Some would say going inside mightn’t send the right message, but we went inside for a reason. We wanted a nice, intense, energetic session and we got that. We hit the slop out there today, but we don’t expect it to be that wet at the ‘G.”

The Blues’ match committee could not find room for Sam Jacobs, Andrew Walker or Brad Fisher despite outstanding efforts in the VFL at the weekend and will go unchanged into Saturday’s clash.

While that scenario is a frustrating one for those currently outside the senior 22, Montgomery said it was a healthy situation for the club to be in.

“There are a number of players who have been knocking on the door for a long time and that’s why we think the curve is heading north again,” he said.

“All we can do is satisfy the player by telling them that we are seeing everything that he’s doing [with the Bullants].”

Chris Yarran has recovered from the ankle injury that ruled him out last week, but will return via the VFL.  

Brock McLean did short running drills off to the side of the main group and Montgomery said the club was hopeful he could win his battle against the clock to play a part at the sharp end of the season.
 
“Brock will be fit again very, very shortly, so we’ll be having another look at him hopefully,” he said of the prized recruit who has been cruelled by knee and quad injuries in his first season at the club.

“He’s very much day to day. We like to plan and we certainly like to think we could get him in earlier [than the finals].

“We want to give the guy every chance to just get himself right enough to play and play up to his best. We don’t want to jump too far ahead with him.”