Carlton remains resolute in their determination to stick to the plan put in place when Brendon Bolton began to rebuild from the ground up and won't be looking for handouts to speed up the process.
Having won just two games in their past 22 for only the second time in their history, with their lowest percentage after 12 games since 1901 and coming off an humiliating loss last week, the club is at the lowest point in the process.
Brendon Bolton delivers a strong message to his players against Fremantle.
Photo: AAP
However a determined Bolton said the club's emerging group of youngsters were motivated to "chase" the rest of the competition by working hard now to reap future reward.
He explained why the club would not be applying for a priority pick this season saying the decision reasserted the Blues' faith in their process.
"We want to, as a footy club, roll our sleeves up and stick to a plan and work our way through it together," Bolton said.
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"I think it just shows our solidarity in trying to work really hard and stick to a plan and being steadfast on it."
The AFL is keen to find ways to reduce the time it takes struggling clubs to rebuild their lists with AFL CEO Gill McLachlan saying recently the topic was a focus for discussion in the Queen's Birthday gathering of coaches for dinner.
However Bolton said the Blues would let the AFL worry about any initiatives in that area while they went about educating the group of individuals on their list.
"The AFL will work its way through how and if they want to speed up rebuilds because we can see they take time but we're not going to be distracted by that," Bolton said.
"We will control what we can control which is not deviating and damn hard work."
Bolton said the club remained open-minded about trading picks ahead of the draft to secure talented players from other clubs or trading an early pick for multiple picks.
He acknowledged the gap in 22-27 year olds on the list made consistency difficult.
However he said the players were learning how to lead through adversity and guaranteed they would focus on pressuring the opposition when they play Collingwood at the MCG on Sunday.
"There is no use worrying about the fact there is not leadership there," Bolton said.
"We need to educate on what that looks like."
He paid special tribute to the efforts of veteran Kade Simpson, who closes on his 300th game, revealing he highlighted to the players his effort in the third quarter when the chips were down.
"Isn't that great education for a group? That is why it is important to have those old heads around a younger crew," Bolton said.
Peter Ryan joined The Age in 2017 having covered AFL as a senior reporter with AFL Media.
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