Brendon Bolton reiterated his belief that Carlton are on the road to success despite the Blues hitting a giant pothole in the form of a 92-point AFL pre-season drubbing by St Kilda on Saturday.
Coming off last week's 54-point belting by Melbourne, the listless Blues were outclassed by the impressive Saints, Josh Bruce kicking seven goals in an emphatic 0.18.14 (122) to 0.4.6 (30) win at Princes Park.
Liam Jones climbed high to take a screamer in the opening minutes of the match but there was precious little for Carlton fans to get excited about after that.
After Charlie Curnow kicked his side's second goal of the match 15 minutes into the opening term, St Kilda kicked 17 of the 19 goals scored for the rest of the lopsided contest.
It should be noted Carlton were missing several top-shelf players, but so were the Saints.
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Marc Murphy, Bryce Gibbs, Kade Simpson, Matthew Kreuzer and Sam Docherty watched the horror story unfold for the Blues but Leigh Montagna, Nick Riewoldt, Maverick Weller, Sam Gilbert and Jarryn Geary were absent for the visitors.
"We're not just going to be locked away on wins and losses - I've said that for a few years so I'm not going to jump off that," a defiant Bolton said.
"That's the road map that we're asking but I will say that we'll challenge standards ... on the things that we want to improve on.
"We've just got to keep growing. We've turned the list over by 30 (players) and there were some young kids who couldn't hold on for probably more than a quarter and a half.
"But we'll challenge them to do that."
In one of the few positives for the Blues, young star Patrick Cripps made it through a half unscathed after battling a back injury late in the pre-season.
"I wasn't too stressed about his performance ... he's spent a lot of time off full training," Bolton said.
"As long as he got his minutes up that's all we were concerned with."
As much as Carlton disappointed, the Saints impressed with their slick ball movement and stifling pressure around the ball.
While Bruce dominated up forward, Jack Billings (30 possessions), Jack Steele (25) and Jack Steven (23) were important on the ball.
"We were able to put a really solid four quarters in and play our way with our method - that was the most pleasing part," stand-in Saints coach Aaron Hamill said.
"We know our good footy can match it with anyone but the degree from our good last year to not so good was significant so we know we've still got a lot of work to do."
