CARLTON faces another test to confirm its top-four credentials when Brett Ratten's men take on ladder leaders Geelong at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.

The Blues failed the first major examination of their retooled game plan in round three when a second-quarter lapse was all Collingwood, who sat atop the premiership ladder at that stage, needed to open up a match-winning lead. 

That game remains the only occasion this season that Carlton has been beaten in both the contested possession count and clearances after a summer Ratten spent trying to ensure his players would no longer be pushed off the ball when the result was in the balance.

The Blues lost the clearance count by one in the draw with Essendon the next week, but since then has had the better of both key categories in wins over Adelaide, the Sydney Swans and St Kilda.

So having matched the best team in the competition for roughly three quarters six weeks ago, has Carlton worked hard enough in the interim to go one better against the side that now lays claim to that title?

"We do feel like we've improved in those areas that matter," midfielder Kade Simpson said after the team's final training session at Visy Park on Thursday.

"Our clearances are going pretty well, but Geelong are a great clearance team so we're really going to have to step it up this week

"They're undefeated this year, so they've obviously been playing great footy. I think a lot of people wrote them off at the start of the year. We see them and Collingwood as the benchmark teams so it will be a good chance for us to really test ourselves.

"We're just going to play our game style and if we can pressure them up and tackle the way that we have been, then hopefully that will hold us in good stead."

This new-found grunt has proved an effective foil for the Blues' pace with Simpson rating the 2011 team as one of the quickest he's played in. 

The implementation of, what Ratten calls, "uncompromising footy" and the added maturity of the playing list has this year's Blues sitting in fourth spot with just one loss after eight rounds. 

Win, lose or draw, Friday night's clash against the Cats will tell us a lot about how far Carlton has come under Ratten and, perhaps more importantly, how far it has to go.