No offence intended: Jamison
Carlton hopes GWS won't take offence when the Blues rest several players for Sunday's clash
CARLTON is set to rest several key players against Greater Western Sydney this Sunday and Blues full-back Michael Jamison, but the last-placed Giants shouldn't take offence.
Coming off a win against Fremantle in Perth, coach Brett Ratten flagged the possibility of resting some key veterans this weekend and Jamison believes the AFL competition has matured enough to embrace the practice.
"It's a distinct possibility, but certainly nothing we've discussed as a playing group yet," Jamison said on Tuesday.
"I'm sure the guys behind the scenes might be discussing, but who it might be I'm not sure. Some of the older guys might put their hands up if that is the case.
"You have to look at Geelong last year, when they definitely rested players, with the benefits it had for them, especially towards the end of the year.
"Two byes was fantastic last year and it's a shame we didn't get two byes this year, but to counter that I think every team is going to have to look after its players - certainly their older players."
Jamison, who missed the first two games of the season after struggling to overcome a stress reaction in his back, is not likely to be rested for the clash that will see three of his teammates reach career milestones.
In a remarkable display of durability winger Kade Simpson will play his 150th game in a row, small forward Eddie Betts will play the 150th game of his career and ruckman Shaun Hampson will finally notch 50 games in his sixth year at the club.
The Blues tightened their grip on a top-four spot with last Friday's win, which followed on the heels of a disappointing loss to Essendon.
Jamison said plenty of positives were taken from the performance in front of a hostile crowd, but he maintained his team still had plenty of work to do.
"We were happy with the way we responded, but we've got to make sure it's not a week to week thing where we're up and down," he said.
"We're certainly not travelling as well as we'd hope to be. We've got some deficiencies that we really want to work on and improve this week, so we'll be going out pretty hard.
"We think the defensive side of our game waned a little bit in the last few weeks. We got over the line on the weekend, but there are certainly areas that we want to improve on.
"We want to work pretty hard on our press and get right up in the Giants' faces."