After 15 rounds last season, Ratten's Carlton was 7-8, and in ninth position on the ladder, out of the top eight only on percentage. Now, the Blues are 11th, two games adrift of eighth-placed Port Adelaide, and after four consecutive losses, this week take on St Kilda which has already beaten them once this year. Jeremy Laidler, seen as a defensive general at the start of the season, has had one outing. Credit:Sebastian Costanzo Another defeat and the prospect of finals for Carlton might be just about shot. Ironic, really, given the failure to reach them cost Ratten his gig and in came Malthouse. Not that there haven't been improvements. Before last Friday night, the Blues' biggest loss had been by just 22 points. Under Malthouse, Carlton is winning more contested ball and clearances relative to its opposition, and its kicking efficiency is up. Yet neither are the Blues winning nearly as much of the football. Their tackling has fallen away, as have the amount of scoring opportunities created compared with the sides they play.

And significantly, for all the supposed extra focus on the more defensive aspects of the game, Carlton is ranked exactly where it was last year - ninth - for points conceded, an average of 87.1 a game compared with 87.5 in 2012. Dylan Buckley. Credit:Sebastian Costanzo Neither has its attacking ranking moved much, the average points scored now 95.1 to last year's 94.5. All that with a much longer list of fit players than Ratten had at his disposal for much of 2012. There's a stodginess about Carlton's midfield, reflected in the presence of more defensively oriented players such as Ed Curnow and Jaryd Cachia, with Kade Simpson being used almost exclusively from half-back. Heath Scotland, with previous success in that role, has tailed off significantly. Before the season, Matthew Watson was considered a likely fixture in Carlton's back six. He has not played a single game. Credit:Getty Images

The more offensively capable mids, meanwhile, haven't consistently stepped up to the plate. While vice-captain Andrew Carrazzo is one who can claim the injury card, new skipper Marc Murphy is down for disposals on last year and Mitch Robinson similarly. Veteran Chris Judd remains Carlton's leading ball-winner with an average of 24 disposals, but the signs of the ageing process on the 29-year-old are becoming clearer. Having lost much of his trademark acceleration out of traffic, Judd's touches simply don't cause as much damage as they used to. Judd's 29 disposals against Collingwood was a season high. But that amount of ball only a couple of years ago would almost inevitably have seen him a clear best-on-ground. There's been conservatism at the selection table, with future hopes Troy Menzel and Dylan Buckley appearing for just three games between them, while another young talent in Nick Graham, who has been injured, could get his chance this week. And what's becoming increasingly apparent is just how much Carlton, and Malthouse, have scaled down their hopes for 2013, and the extent to which the pre-season thinking has shifted.

Nick Duigan was a potential captaincy candidate, Jeremy Laidler seen as a defensive general, and Matthew Watson a likely fixture in Carlton's back six. Duigan and Laidler have played one game each, Watson not used at all. In February, as the Blues began their practice match program, Malthouse's view was that a ''healthy and hungry'' Carlton, given the "planets aligning", could "very well have the makings of a premiership side". Loading That isn't going to happen. Which is why by last Friday night, the coach was calling the AFL ladder "totally and utterly irrelevant to us", and club chief executive Greg Swann later foreshadowed significant changes to the list at the end of the season. Because again for Carlton, the list and the formula, is falling short. And the only potential difference come the end of this season to last is that this coach won't lose his job because of it.