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CARLTON coach Brett Ratten is not surprised his side is still in the finals race 19 rounds into the season, but says it will not get pre-occupied by September talk after comfortably beating Port Adelaide at Telstra Dome on Saturday.

The win – the Blues ninth of the season – takes it equal on points with Brisbane and eagerly awaiting the remaining results.

Next week they face a season defining game against North Melbourne.

"The light flickers still with a chance, and the opportunity still sits there," Ratten said of the side's top eight aspirations.

"But, we don't worry about the finals.

"We mentioned it once and we were sort of shell-shocked from a team point of view."

Seven weeks ago the Blues talked up their top eight hopes after a big round 12 win over Collingwood, only to flop badly the following week against Essendon.

To be still in the finals hunt after 19 rounds has come as no surprise to the Carlton ccoach, who said growth in confidence was at the heart of the side's late season surge.

"I was never sure how far we could go," he said.

"I was never sure how many games we could win and if we could play finals."

The Blues' 66-point win was only their third in their last 12 matches against the Power.

"We've had a lot of monkeys to get off our back over the last 12 months and hopefully we might be starting something that will go into 2009," Ratten said.

The first-year coach was thrilled with the intensity that saw his side double Port's scoring shots, win the inside 50 count 72-38 and score a decisive 50-38 victory at stoppages.

"We had a fair slice of the pie today to beat Port Adelaide, and we did, but at the end of the day there are aspects of our game that needed to improve," he said.

"In these games we're expected to win and we should win if we want to go on and do bigger and better things this year, or next year, or whatever time it is.

"We need to win games of footy against teams that are lower down on the ladder."

He even felt some sympathy for full-forward Brendan Fevola, who kicked 4.4 but dropped a further two goals behind Hawthorn's Lance Franklin in the race for the Coleman Medal.

"It's not an easy time for the big fella down there because he has got a personal goal there," Ratten said of Fevola's battle with Franklin.

"I suppose (the Coleman Medal) would be in the back of his mind, but at the end of the day he'd rather get the four points than worry about individual awards."

Eddie Betts, a late withdrawal because of a hamstring strain, is expected to be available to tackle North Melbourne next week.