Pressure relieved, says Judd
Chris Judd hopes the pressure released by the win over Essendon will carry the Blues through the finals
After successive losses in cut-throat finals, Carlton rose to the occasion in emphatic fashion against Essendon on Sunday as they exorcised the demons of their recent past with a 62-point win.
"We're certainly rapt to have our first finals win for the best part of a decade," Judd said from Visy Park on Monday.
"The boys were pleased, but you really do have to measure that with the fact that we've got a huge challenge this week. We need to get back on the horse against West Coast.
"We've still got a pretty young group that hasn't played a lot of finals football, so there's no doubt that as a collective we'll get a lot of confidence in how we played on Sunday.
"Hopefully we'll take that into next week's game."
The Blues will travel to Perth on Thursday for Saturday evening's clash against the Eagles at Patersons Stadium.
Despite describing that task as one of the toughest in football this season, Judd is quietly confident his team learned a lot from the round 14 loss to West Coast and is capable of a much better showing this time.
Judd was unable to offer any insight into the possible availability of Matthew Kreuzer (foot) and Bryce Gibbs (shoulder) other than to say the ruckman "would be given every opportunity" to prove his fitness.
Gibbs fell heavily on his left shoulder late in the win against Essendon and was still wearing a sling at the club on Monday afternoon.
Coach Brett Ratten would love to be able to call on important forward Jarrad Waite for his first game since undergoing hip surgery after round 16, but he failed in his bid to play VFL football last weekend.
"Certainly it's not getting any easier the more matches he misses," Judd said of his teammate's predicament.
"He's just got to try to prepare as well as he possibly can and wait and see."
Brock McLean, who was best on ground for the Bullants, and Shaun Hampson, who kicked six goals in the same team, thrust their names forward for selection this week and Judd said it would be interesting to see how the match committee meeting unfolded.
"I would have thought we had a pretty even group of contributors yesterday … I'm sure the coaches will work out what we need to take in to give us the best opportunity to win," he said.
"At this time of year it's a good thing to have blokes who are unlucky.
"We've been in situations before where anyone who has been in any sort of form, and who is fit, is in the side, so it's good to be at this time of year and have blokes playing well who aren't in the ones."
It is widely believed that the elimination final win, a goal set by senior club figures before the season, will see Ratten win a new contract, but Judd maintained the coach's tenure had never been an issue for the players.
"It's just been business as usual for Ratts," he said.
"He made it clear in the press conference I did with him last week that he didn't want the week to be about his contract.
"It's about this footy club, our fans and them getting the opportunity to see us play a final in Melbourne. He's been no different with the players - it was all about preparing for Essendon and now it will be about preparing for West Coast."