CARLTON has been a club under pressure following last weekend’s debacle against Collingwood, but onballer Marc Murphy says the players accept full responsibility for turning the side’s fortunes around.

Coach Brett Ratten turned the blowtorch on his players after the 48-point loss, questioning their hardness at the ball. Murphy says the group accepted that criticism and backed his teammates to respond against Essendon at the MCG on Friday night.

“It always comes down to us in the end,” Murphy said from Visy Park on Thursday.

“The coach can say what he wants, but it’s the players who are out there week in and week out and it all lies with us in the end. We know what we need to bring to play our best footy. It’s definitely player driven.

“We’ve done a lot of work off-field with Leading Teams and I think that’s been really good for us. We’ve had a lot of meetings, but talk means nothing unless you respond when your actions aren’t good enough.

“That’s what we’ve been focusing on this week - our actions. Talk means nothing if you don’t bring it out on the ground.”

Murphy spoke after a 45-minute training session he described as “short, sharp and spirited”. Skipper Chris Judd trained well to remove all doubt about his availability which was thrown into question when he picked up a knock to a pectoral muscle late in last week’s game.

With contested football the mantra at the club all week, Murphy was asked if he and fellow onballer Bryce Gibbs would take it upon themselves to lend the skipper a hand in that area.  

“It’s everyone on the list that needs to help out Juddy,” he said.

“You can’t leave it to one or two blokes to pick up that slack so we’re making it a real focus for everybody.”

While many outside the club have had their say as the Blues have struggled over the past month, Murphy said that was of little consequence as the group prepared for a season-defining match.  

“We’ve got pressure on ourselves that is internally driven,” he said.

“We know it’s a must-win game for us, but we’re just concentrating on doing all the right things, playing with a lot of energy and making sure our contested footy is right up. We know if we bring that we’ll go all right.

“Last week wasn’t good enough and we knew that as players as well. We’ve been working towards a better performance tomorrow night and if our contested footy is up and our energy is up we’ll give it a good shot.”

The Blues wore red training guernseys during Thursday’s session and will sport red laces against the Bombers in support of RED - a charity created by Bono and Bobby Shriver to drive awareness and raise funds to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.