“TO WEAR the Navy Blue jumper, you need to turn up to compete.”

It’s no surprise what the mantra has been on the training track at IKON Park this week.

A day after Jacob Weitering mentioned Carlton’s need to play to its strength, Senior Coach David Teague said the pressure dial had been turned up in drills in preparation for Sunday’s clash with Fremantle.

Mentioning the Blues’ focus on turning the game into a contest and ramping up its defensive intent, Teague said it wasn’t the time to talk about how the team was going to overturn an 0-2 record.

“You’ve got to own it… we need to get that right, you don’t win any game of footy [with that defensive intent],” Teague said.

“It’s turning up to compete. Right now, it’s not at the level. Any player that wants to break into our side, that’d be my number one focus heading into this week.

“We can talk about it, but we’ve just got to go out and action it.”

Carlton’s contested ball-winning ability was a key area of focus for Teague, with the Blues being uncharacteristically beaten in the metric in the opening fortnight.

Winning the contested possession differential has been a barometer for the Blues under the Senior Coach: Carlton has won the contested possession count in all bar two of its 13 wins with Teague at the helm.

Teague said the battle would start at the source this weekend, with Fremantle’s on-ball brigade enjoying strong individual performances in last week’s win over GWS.

“We start our game on the contest. It’s our brand, we compete: it’s something we really value,” he said.

“Right now, we’re not making the game into enough of a contest. We need to bring players in that will do that.

“To wear the Navy Blue jumper, you need to turn up to compete.”

In terms of the centre-bounce battle, Teague was backing in co-captain Patrick Cripps to return to his previous form on the back of a 10-day break.

After polling coaches’ votes in Round 1, Cripps struggled to make his usual impact last weekend — but the Senior Coach said he couldn’t have any more faith in the co-captain.

“Patrick is a great leader for our football club and the hard thing right now is he’s not playing the way he wants to play,” he said.

“He has had an injury and he’s been a bit sore, but when he gets to game day he’s been putting his hand up to play. He’s not executing to the level he would love to execute at.

“I have absolutely belief that it’ll happen this weekend: I’ll back him in. He’s someone that I’d love to run out alongside and tuck in behind him as captain of a football club.”