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CARLTON midfielder Nick Stevens believes the Blues have gone from a team willing to throw in the towel a few seasons back to now being able to match it with the competition’s best.

Speaking on Monday – the day after his side rocketed back into finals contention – Stevens said the “sky was the limit” for the young Blues.

Stevens was among his side’s best in the Blues’ stirring, come-from-behind win over the Western Bulldogs at Telstra Dome on Sunday.

Carlton trailed by 37 points late in the third term before booting six goals to nil in the final quarter to win by 28 points.

“If you can put four quarters together, I think you can beat anyone on any given day,” the star ballwinner said.

“It’s up to us … there’s not too many sides nowadays who play four quarters of that sort of footy but if we can get up to three quarters, three-and-a-half quarters we’ll be pretty hard to beat.”

Despite trailing by big margins throughout the match, the Blues were able to respond through the efforts of Stevens, skipper Chris Judd and six-goal hero Brendan Fevola.

Stevens, who singled out defenders Michael Jamison, Bret Thornton and Jarrad Waite in the win, said despite the deficit the Blues didn’t lose belief.

“Juddy and myself were talking about it after the game and we both said that we never really thought we were out of it,” he said.

“We knew that we were going pretty well in all the stats and all the indicators that say that you should be competitive.

“So we knew that if we started to take our opportunities and use the ball better in the second half we could peg them back pretty quick.”

However the experienced on-baller admitted that might not have been the case once upon a time at Carlton.

“I guess over the last four or five years we’ve been a side that’s sort of given up and probably lost games and been beaten quite heavily in the past,” he said.

“But … we sat down as a group and said that we never want to say die and that’s what we’ve done this year, and you know with a young group it’s a great attitude to have.”

Now, the Blues are 11th on the table but just one win behind the fifth-placed North Melbourne in one of the most tightly-packed AFL ladders in seasons.

And while some have debated the merit of Carlton playing finals at this early stage of their development, Stevens is in no doubt as to his preference.

“I guess it would be good to expose all the young guys to finals and of where you need to be at and the tempo finals are played at.”