CARLTON senior assistant coach Alan Richardson has backed onballer Brock McLean to put a difficult first year at the club behind him.

Richardson arrived at the Blues from Essendon last month and has already liked what he's seen of the former Demon, who was restricted to just six games by knee and quad injuries in 2010.

The club's fitness and conditioning staff have devised a detailed pre-season plan for the 24-year-old that will soon see him training with the main group.

"We're really excited about Brock. He's back on the track and he's running, so he won't be too far away," Richardson said.

"We think that he'll be able to play a role not unlike the way Luke Ball was able to play such a significant role for Collingwood.

"Brock is a fantastic long runner and given the rules now in terms of only having three on the bench, depending on your philosophy, you might need someone to hang around a bit longer [on the ground] and he has that capability.

"He's an outstanding leader and wins the ball."

McLean was in high spirits as the Blues finished up their second week of pre-season training with a skills session at Visy Park on Friday.

He trained alongside Matthew Kreuzer in the rehab group, with Richardson equally impressed with the ruckman's commitment to his rehabilitation from a knee reconstruction.

The club remains hopeful Kreuzer will take the field early in the season, but Richardson said that concrete goals would not be set so far out.

"It would be unprofessional of us to dangle that (a round-one return) as what he's got to work towards," he said.

"The conditioning staff will have all sorts of benchmarks that he'll need to tick off on the way through.

"Certainly relatively early in the season we're hopeful that he's back playing. At this stage he's had absolutely no hiccups, but there's always the chance he'll get some soreness or he'll get some scarring.

"One thing we do know is if he has anything to say about it, it will be round one of the NAB Cup let alone round one of the season."

Youngster Kane Lucas made a smooth transition to the league, but the hamstring issues that ended his debut year will see the club take a cautious approach to his first full pre-season.

Meanwhile, Richardson, who was in strong demand after leaving the Bombers, doesn't believe the significant changes to Carlton's coaching staff will spread to its game plan.

Gavin Brown (Collingwood) and John Barker (Hawthorn) were also added in the off-season.

"We're really happy with the way that we play the game. We've just got to get better at it," Richardson said.

"They've played in finals the last two years for two really narrow losses, so given the natural improvement that will come within the group both physically and from a game understanding point of view [there is reason for optimism]."

The club's senior players, including Chris Judd, Kade Simpson and Heath Scotland, will return to training on Monday.