To watch Brett Ratten’s preview of the 2008 season on CFC TV, click here.

Carlton Senior Coach Brett Ratten has told CFC TV that the Blues’ aim in 2009 is to play finals by way of meeting a series of short-term objectives through the course of the season.

“That’s our aim - to play finals footy - but we won’t make that so much as a focus . . . I think it will be the process that we go through week to week,” Ratten said.

“I know it’s an old cliché that they say in football, but it’s just got so much truth to it and if you’re thinking too far ahead you can miss out on the little things . . . and sometimes the little things create that big thing which is playing finals.”

The Carlton Coach has also indicated that his team must tidy up its game plan in 2009. As he said: “We need to clean part of our game style up, and our decision making with the footy”.

And he said he wants to instill that winning culture back at Carlton, something the Blues may have lost since their last finals campaign in 2001.

“I think that (the winning culture) is starting to grow within the Club and then externally as well,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure we don’t get ahead of our expectations, but that is our expectation week to week, to make sure we are 100 per cent committed to get a victory.”

Ratten believes what Carlton fans saw in 2008 was a snapshot of where the Club is heading.

“I think we’ll go forward next year. Maybe the big question mark is ‘Will we go as quick as everyone believes?’ Maybe, maybe not. I think 2010 is our real big ‘bang’ year from a club point of view because the Gibbs’ and Murphy’s will be in their fourth and fifth year.”

To watch Brett Ratten’s preview of the 2008 season on CFC TV, click here.