Ninth may be the new eighth in the AFL.
But Carlton say they are not considering the prospect of any Essendon-related golden ticket to the finals despite a weekend which has hurt their chances of making the top eight under their own steam.
Carlton's Saturday night loss to Fremantle, coupled with Sunday's important victories to Collingwood and Port Adelaide, leave the Blues two wins out of the eight with four matches to play.
It means that for ninth-placed Carlton and 10th-placed North Melbourne the just-delivered ASADA report into Essendon's 2012 supplement program and any possible punishment may be as critical as winning games of football.
But Blues midfielder Bryce Gibbs says that while Carlton know they must keep winning, they can't do so thinking of any possible saloon passage to the finals.
"It's out of our control. It's a matter for Essendon and the AFL to work out, but we certainly can't hope that ninth is going to be good enough this year - not one bit at all," Gibbs said on Monday.
"Four games to go. We win four games, we make finals. It's as simple as that."
Helping Carlton in the battle to make the eight without an asterisk is that they play Port Adelaide in round 23.
Wins in their other three matches - starting with the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on Saturday - would have to come with helpful results elsewhere.
"For a lot of the year, we've been in a lot of games, but we've lacked finishing off against the top eight sides," Gibbs said.
"Our best footy's good enough. We just seem to have lapses in games. You can't afford to do that if you want to be in finals contention.
"That's something we've definitely addressed, and something we need to get better at.
"The season's still alive for us ... if we win the rest of these games, we should play finals."
