There is a noticeably harder edge to the Carlton Football Club in 2011.

Coach Brett Ratten is pretty much on notice. If there is no improvement on the last two seasons, in which the Blues have qualified for the finals and then been bundled out in the first week (throwing away winning leads both times) then he can start clearing out his desk.

The Blues have announced to the world that they're back in the business of winning finals and echoing a similar cry out of Hawthorn back in 2007, they want to win two flags in the next five years.

Sadly for the Blues, they face a stiff fight even to get back to the finals. A few good judges have them missing out in September and we at BPL feel the same. We have them finishing ninth.

We share concerns about the Carlton backline. The screaming headlines today (Thursday) were all about the new-look Carlton backline, featuring mature-aged recruits Nick Duigan and Jeremy Laidler, with highly-rated 2010 draftee Matthew Watson also in the mix.

The Blues need to shake up their back half just a bit but we're not sure they're the inclusions to turn a borderline finalist into a flag contender, at least not this year.

The Blues have Michael Jamison, but he is better suited to smaller, more mobile forwards than some of the dinosaurs. Bret Thornton is being groomed to move forward, while Jarrad Waite plays forward or back, depending on need and match-up.

To be fair to the Blues, they recognise their deficiencies and they loaded up on tall defenders at the draft. But the development process needs to take place.

The Blues like their midfield. Why wouldn't they? It contains Chris Judd fresh off a Brownlow, Marc Murphy and Kade Simpson, both playing career best football and potentially, Bryce Gibbs. He's had an ordinary pre-season, Gibbs, and much has been made of how the former no.1 draft pick didn't make Mike Sheahan's pre-season top 50 the other day.

Not suggesting for a moment this actually happened, but there is precedent for footy officials to ring journalists and suggest a certain course of action, in order to elicit a reaction from a player. Who knows, perhaps Ratten has now stuck a copy of the Top 50 article on Gibbs' locker in a bid to get him to extract his finger from the proverbial.

The great unknown for the Blues is Matthew Kreuzer, who is in the final stages of recovery from a knee reconstruction and who should be back on the park within a month. The suggestion is that when he returns it will be as a ruck-rover, a follower in the true sense of the word. The Blues do have Robbie Warnock as a bona fide no.1 ruckman and the new substitute rule seems to dictate your second ruckman have another string to his bow. Fit and firing, Kreuzer has the height, skills and tank to cause enormous damage as an on-baller.

Closer to goal, the Blues have Lachlan Henderson who showed a bit in the second half of last season. They relied on small forwards such as Eddie Betts, Chris Yarran and Jeff Garlett for 100 goals between them last year, often at the feet of Henderson and Setanta o'hAilpin. But Yarran has had as fine a summer as Gibbs has been poor and a berth in the midfield or as a playmaker off half-back seems to be in the wings.

There has also been significant off-field change for the Blues, with Gavin Brown (Collingwood), John Barker (Hawthorn) and Alan Richardson (Essendon) all joining the coaching staff. Ratten will have plenty of fresh and new ideas coming his way.

It could all fall into place this year for the Blues and they could push for the top four. But we just think there are a few more question marks hovering over the Blues than there are for some of those tipped to finish above them.

The story so far

10. Essendon

11. Melbourne

12. North Melbourne

13. West Coast

14. Richmond

15. Gold Coast

16. Port Adelaide

17. Brisbane