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CARLTON midfielder Ryan Houlihan has said that the Blues are not even thinking about finals football just yet, and won't think about it until after round 22.

Houlihan was influential against Port Adelaide on Sunday, recording 24 touches and five clearances to be one of Carlton's best in its 54-point victory at AAMI Stadium.

While the victory over eighth-placed Port Adelaide cemented Carlton’s spot in the finals, Houlihan said that next week's game against Melbourne is more important than September action right now.

“We’re not thinking about it yet - we just want to get the next two games out of the way. We’ve still got a lot of improving to do before finals,” he said.

“Obviously we’ll try to prime ourselves for the finals in the next two weeks and hopefully take some good form into the finals.”

Houlihan said the Blues are eagerly looking forward to being part of September.

“We haven’t played finals for a good eight years, so we’re not going to take it for granted," he said.

Houlihan said that playing football in Adelaide is always tough, but said the Blues knew what they had to do to win against the inconsistent Power.

“Port’s performance this season has been a bit up and down, but if you let them run, they’ll slice you up with their skills,” he said.

“We were able to halt their run and come away with a good win.”

Houlihan attributed Carlton’s good form over the last few weeks to the younger players in the team, who are maturing and developing at a rapid rate.

“Port has had a good run over here this season, so it was a big game for us to back up last week’s win against Geelong. To see the maturity of all of the younger kids ... it was pleasing to see that we didn’t get ahead of ourselves.”