Carlton coach Michael Voss has urged his injury-hit charges to embrace having their season on the line and stand and deliver against St Kilda.
The Blues need to beat the Saints, who have returned to form over the past two months, at Marvel Stadium on Sunday to seal a top-eight berth.
But they will have to do so without a plethora of key players.
Charlie Curnow (ankle), Harry McKay (quad), Jack Martin (hamstring), Zac Williams (hamstring) are all sidelined.
The Blues are also without Lachie Fogarty (collarbone), Jordan Boyd (adductor), Tom De Koning (foot/lung), Adam Cerra (hamstring) and Matt Cottrell (shoulder).
But Voss drew inspiration from his youth-filled team's win over West Coast last week, saying he would pick a side of fit players, not those under injury clouds.
"It's certainly the principle we took last week, which is the opportunity that was afforded to the younger players to be able to come into the team," he said.
"And we'd like to think we can reward that again, and they can bring the same amount of energy that they had last week.
"I don't think they'll be by themselves, we've got a team and a club and a group of supporters that will bring that energy in the stadium as well and that's what we're looking forward to.
"This game - we live somewhere between consequence and opportunity and that's the thing about high-performance sport and where you sit in the competition.
"But that's a privilege to be in. That's not something to shy away from. That's something to step into, and that's what we'll do."
St Kilda's finals hopes were long ago over but they have won five of their past seven games, including an impressive fightback against Geelong last week.
Voss was wary of what the Saints could deliver, while their coach Ross Lyon was happy for his team to play the villain while stressing his focus was building towards next year.
"It all counts. We've spoken for a while about focus on laying foundations for the future and that's where this week squarely sits. We're dog-hungry to improve," Lyon said.
"Our motivation is to improve our football and drive to the level that we need to be.
"It's Carlton's home game, so Marvel will be rocking again, and we want to really be competitive and clearly we'd love a scalp. But if you focus on the winning, it doesn't get done."
