Carlton ruck coach Gary Dempsey believes the club has the ruck depth to match it with the best in the competition and he's signaled a more attacking approach from the Blues' big men in 2006.

With the addition to the squad of Dylan McLaren from the Brisbane Lions, Dempsey said there will be genuine competition for spots in the starting line-up.

He said the club was much better placed than last year when forced to rely on first-year ruckman Chris Bryan to carry the load single-handed while Barnaby French and Adrian Deluca were both sidelined by injury for several weeks through the middle of the season.

And he said the days when the likes of versatile non-specialists such as Ian Prendergast or Anthony Koutoufides were required to fill the breach simply because there was no alternative are long gone.

"We've got tremendous depth and I'm very pleased with the ruck strength. It's a matter of them learning techniques, adapting and the young onballers working with them," Dempsey said.

"I don't think they'll be the weakest part of our game, that's for sure."

While French and McLaren have tended to do their best work around the middle of the field and dropping back, Dempsey believes they have much more to offer.

"I believe that Dylan and Barnaby should go forward more often," he said.

"They're both very competitive ruckmen and I think they should go hard at it for a certain amount of time then change over. I think we should be able to run them into the forward line just to put pressure on.

"It's probably not what they're used to, but in the 10-minutes of match practice just now Barnaby got forward and got himself into the middle of the pack - he didn't take the mark but he brought the ball to the ground and they kicked a goal.

"They're the sorts of things a ruckman can do and whether that comes naturally or not it's a matter of getting to where the ball is going to be which is an art a ruckman should have anyway."

Dempsey, the finest big man of his generation and the 1975 Brownlow Medalist, said the art of ruckwork and the type of skills that he teaches are much the same now as in the days when he was going head-to-head with Carl Ditterich, Mike Fitzpatrick, Graham Moss and Don Scott.

"The principles are still the same, the body work is still the same, jumping is still the same - it's very gladiatorial especially when it's a tight game and there's a lot of ball-ups and throw ins," Dempsey said.

"The big difference is where they run to and how open the game can get and how closed the game can get.

"I don't teach them, I guide them, because you can't make a Barnaby French a Gary Dempsey or a Len Thompson or a John Nicholls. What you do is show them certain aspects of how you compete, how you use your body, how you jump and you find they adapt."

Dempsey said he had noticed a genuine esprit de corps developing among the Blues' big men and he said it was important that they work together on the track and on match day.

"I think today there is an element of competition, but it's not like the 70s when your number one ruckman rucked all day," he said.

"Today the game is so quick that if you've got good ruckmen - and I think Dylan and Barnaby are good ruckmen - then they should complement each other and they should work on a Sandilands or a White or an Everitt and work him over and stay fresh while they hammer him into the ground."

Another player that Dempsey has been working with is Setanta O'hAilpin who was promoted from the rookie list to the senior list this season - and it's one of the great unresolved questions of the 2006 pre-season (among Carlton supporters at any rate) - just where will the 198cm Irishman fit in?

"It took Jim Stynes and Tadhg Kennelly four years to get going and Setanta has only been going two," noted Dempsey.

"He's big, he's very agile - he could probably play on a wing or at half-forward or as a follower - but he's still got a lot to learn about body work because he had none until he came to Australia and the sort of work he's doing with me he's doing for the first time ever.

"I think he's a project. I would start off - it's up to them - but I would probably look to play him on a flank until he got used to the game and maybe give him an occasional run on the ball. But he's got to play well enough to make it yet - as a player.

"He's got to get the form on the board, then we'll see."