MATT Kennedy will get his opportunity at senior level when Carlton face St Kilda at Marvel Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Senior coach Brendon Bolton confirmed the young midfielder will run out for his first game in Navy Blue since Round 20 of last season.

Bolton is confident the inside bull will make the most of his opportunity, having bided his time in the VFL for the last month.

“Matt Kennedy will get an opportunity this week,” Bolton said.

“I would say he’s really determined because he had to wait for it, but there are some reasons why it’s taken a little bit of time to get to this point.”

The 21-year-old missed the beginning of the 2019 season after sustaining a shoulder injury during the Northern Blues’ first practice match in February.

Returning through the VFL after a month on the sidelines, Kennedy has been a solid contributor for Northern, despite having struggled for continuity.

In his three VFL games, Kennedy has averaged 22 disposals (14 contested), nine clearances and four tackles per game. 

“Matt will be the first to admit he’s played some solid VFL, but he’s been a bit inconsistent as well,” he said.

“There is some balance on how you play the inside mids that rotate forward with our talls, as a club we’ve had a bit of change.

“We’ve brought in Setterfield, we’ve brought in Matt Kennedy in the last year or so and Mitch McGovern and it’s just changed the dynamic.”

It is a timely return as the Blues prepare to face the Saints in an effort to redeem last weekend’s performance against GWS.

Bolton is confident his Blues can channel the frustration from last week into hitting back against the 13th-placed opposition.

“We’re really looking forward to it. We’ve got a group that are strong in character, so they’re determined to bounce back,” he said.

“We’d expect the response. I’m pretty confident we’ll get one in terms of effort and compliance to structures and things like that because that’s been their history.”

It will be a matter of getting the basics back on track against the Saints, with pressure top of the docket for what is required for Carlton to notch the win.

“Our pressure by and large in games has kept us there, but we’ve had two horrible outliers that are far off the mark of what we expect of each other,” he said.

“We’re going to be defined by pressure, we’ve got to make sure our tackle indicators are high and our lose ball and ground ball gets are high.”