CARLTON assistant coach Matthew Lappin has called for the younger players in the side to step up during Saturday’s clash with the Sydney Swans at Docklands.

A win is vital for the Blues to cement a spot in the top eight.

Despite winning the last two outings against Fremantle and Richmond, Lappin feels there is room for improvement, especially from the youngsters. 

“We’re under no illusions of how we’re travelling as a side,” Lappin said.

“The last couple of weeks we’ve had some really good individual performances but we need better team efforts.

“While we’ve got a really young side we’re asking a lot of those younger guys to step up each week,” Lappin said.

One young player who needs to come out firing on Saturday is Chris Yarran, who has been given the opportunity to play his fourth senior game for the Blues over small forward Jeff Garlett, who was omitted from the side.

Yarran is 20kgs heavier than Garlett and is thought to be more versatile.
 
“In that small forward role, you want a lot of defensive pressure,” Lappin said.

“Jeff brought that in bucket loads, but what we’ve found with Jeff is that he is so little, so while he puts a lot of pressure on he can get brushed aside a little bit with his tackling.

“Chris brings a slightly different package to the table. He’s a beautiful user of the ball, he’s not quite as defensively active, but when he gets the ball ... he’ll be able to hurt the opposition.”

Carlton also welcomes back Heath Scotland, who along with midfielder Nick Stevens, was dumped from the side after the Blue’s demoralising loss to Essendon in round 13.

“We thought there was a real role that Heath could play in the side,” Lappin said.

“He’s served his time and he played a really good game in the reserves a couple of weeks ago.

“He’ll come back and he’ll be really keen to show us that he’s fixed up a couple of areas that we wanted him to have a look at.”

Nick Stevens on the other hand has missed out on selection this week, but Lappin said the midfielder wasn’t too far away from returning.

“Stevo has trained really hard the last couple of weeks,” Lappin said.

“He was going well and that reserves game he played in, he got injured early in the game so we just think he needs another game back there.

“There’s no doubt he’s in our best 22 when  he’s fit and firing but we just need him to get back to his best before we can get him back into the team.”