David Teague says Carlton need to be better for longer if they're to kick on and seal a statement win against a top AFL team ahead of a month which includes games against Brisbane, the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne.
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Coming off back-to-back wins, the Blues had hoped to land a big scalp against Port Adelaide but instead fell well short in their 28-point loss.
Teague was left to lament the gulf in class between the Blues' failure to convert going forward and Port Adelaide's far slicker connection on Saturday night.
"Against the good sides you can't hang in there and beat them when you're not at your best - you need to be at your best and we've got to get better," Teague said.
"Last year, we were in a lot of these games - Port kicked a goal after the siren to beat us, we had West Coast over there in a good spot for a while.
"We're thereabouts. We've got to become more consistent with it and just do it for longer.
"Even the Richmond game, we were in it but we've got to be able to make the right plays when it matters most."
The Blues host Brisbane next Saturday, then face Essendon before taking on the currently undefeated Bulldogs and Demons.
"You want to play in these games and you want to compete against the best," Teague said.
"Now at the end of the day you want to beat the best - and that's what we've got to get to and right now, today tells us that we're not there yet.
"We get another opportunity next week against Brisbane, who just had a big win so they're in form.
"So (it's a) great challenge for us. We look forward to these challenges and you want to play the good teams and that's what we need to do. We need to beat these teams to show our progression."
Meanwhile, the Blues could consider playing Mitch McGovern down back at times after he started forward in his first game for the year, but moved into defence when Jacob Weitering had a concussion test.
"It is a possibility to play him down there - it'll be a bit of horses for courses and who we play against and if there's certain match-ups, he can play quite tall but he's quite mobile as well," Teague said.
"But we also like his creativity up forward - when he got his hands on the ball today I thought he looked like something was going to happen."
Australian Associated Press
