Carlton not content to make up numbers
Despite the Blues being relatively inexperienced playing at ANZ Stadium, Heath Scotland finds reasons for confidence
Despite making the finals last season, many outside the club had the Blues sliding out of the top eight this year while they figured out how to cover the loss of Brendan Fevola.
But having secured eighth spot, Scotland says his team is intent on going one better after giving up a 30-point, final term lead to the Brisbane Lions to bow out of the 2009 premiership race.
“We don’t really worry about how everyone outside rates us, but obviously to improve on last year we do need to win,” Scotland said of Sunday’s elimination final clash against the Sydney Swans.
“It was a goal of ours this year to play finals football, now we’ve got that opportunity and we don’t want to be there to make up the numbers. We’re there to win it like everyone else.
“It was great to make the finals last year, but it was really disappointing how it ended for us. We obviously want to go further than we did last year.”
Full back Michael Jamison will play his first final for the club and agreed that simply taking part wasn’t enough of a payoff for a year of hard work.
“We’re not there just to get some experience, we’re there to win the game and hopefully give our supporters a home final next week,” Jamison said.
Scotland is one of just a handful of current Blues to have played at ANZ Stadium, the venue for Sunday’s match, with a training session scheduled for Saturday to help the players familiarise themselves with the ground.
While it will be foreign to most of the squad, Scotland believes his side has been advantaged by the agreement that requires the Swans to play their finals at the larger ground instead of the cosy confines of the SCG.
“It’s a narrow ground, but it’s about the same length as the MCG, I think, so hopefully we can use our legs and out-run Sydney,” he said.
“Sydney’s form seems a lot better at the SCG than at ANZ Stadium so with a bit more length than the SCG hopefully we can use a bit of a strength in our side which is our leg [speed] and really out-run them.
“They’ve got good runners as well, but you look at our midfield and there’s genuine speed there and that might be an area where we can exploit them.
“We ran out the game against Fremantle really well so hopefully that’s an area we can get on top of them.”
The Blues trained at Visy Park on Tuesday morning with Andrew Carrazzo, who strained a hamstring last week, taking part in a bid to reassure selectors of his fitness for the big game.