The high emotion of Brendon Bolton's sacking is gone, but interim coach David Teague has promised Carlton will attack the Western Bulldogs with the same vigour they produced in a breakthrough win over the Brisbane Lions.
As so often happens in the AFL the game after a coach departs, the Blues played with renewed energy and freedom to snap a six-game losing streak after the intense pressure on Bolton's position was released.
But they'll need to find their motivation elsewhere when they take on the Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night.
"In terms of that energy I've thrown it back to the players, I'm big on not motivating them as a coach, I'm actually wanting them to motivate themselves," Teague told reporters on Friday.
"... The challenge last week when there was a lot of emotion flying around was to simplify things, but now we're changing a few things, which has been a good challenge.
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"They're only slight adjustments.
"The foundation here was pretty good ... it's probably being just a little bit more aggressive in offence, making the ground a little bit bigger."
Carlton made one change for the clash, regaining Marc Murphy from cracked ribs suffered in round nine.
Jack Silvagni appears a little stiff to be dropped for the former skipper but Teague said it was an example of the selection pressure he wants to create in the back half of the season.
The last-placed Blues' only other win this year came against the Dogs in round five.
"You probably go back to that last performance because it wasn't so long ago, but having said that both teams have changed," Teague said of his preparation.
"But to be honest we've spent a lot of the last week-and-half on us. We're worried about how we play.
"That's our No.1 priority.
"We respect the Bulldogs but in the early stages of my coaching we're trying to tweak a few things, we really want to get our game style going and we think it's good enough to perform under pressure."
The Dogs, currently 15th on the ladder, added Tory Dickson and Hayden Crozier for the clash, with Billy Gowers (ankle) and Lachie Young (omitted) dropping out of the side thumped by West Coast.
