SYDNEY premiership coach Paul Roos has rejected criticism of Carlton's defensive playing style – following a fourth straight loss – and backed it to play finals as soon as 2019.

Five Baby Blues have earned NAB AFL Rising Star nominations this season in a promising sign for the future, but the club faces the prospect of winning fewer games than a year ago.

Carlton's seven wins in 2016 were a bright result and it has proven mostly competitive this season, but has only five victories with six matches to go.

The Blues' remaining opponents are the Brisbane Lions (Gabba), Geelong, Essendon, West Coast (Domain Stadium), Hawthorn and Sydney (SCG).



Match preview: Brisbane Lions v Carlton

Brendon Bolton's blueprint for Carlton started with improving its defence, and he was successful on that front, but among the critics is retired Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd who wants to see the Blues evolve into a more attacking unit.

"They're too defensive at the moment," Lloyd said on Access All Areas.

"They're always in games because they chip the ball around and it stops you from being scored against, but you can’t win too many games playing that way."

Roos, who inherited a Melbourne list that won two matches and had a percentage of barely 54 in 2013, developed the Demons in a similar way to what Carlton is doing – also starting with defence.

He said the Blues' experienced core, such as Marc Murphy, Bryce Gibbs and Kade Simpson, meant their list manager Stephen Silvagni began in a stronger position than Melbourne.

"If you look at our evolution, it was four (victories), seven then 10, and Melbourne hopefully wins 12 or 13 games this year," Roos told AFL.com.au.

"But that's probably unusual a team does something like that. (Ascending win tallies) doesn’t have to be the case. They'd love to get another couple of wins, and I think they will.

"Everyone's a bit different, but I'm confident where they're heading and I think 'SOS' (Silvagni) has done a great job and 'Bolts' is doing really well with the development of his team."

Roos believes Carlton's offensive game will naturally improve when its talent stocks spike, an outcome of early draft picks and savvy trading. The Blues are already going down that path.

"I always say defence is attitude and structure, and often your ball use comes from talent," he said.

"I think Freo was a great example (on Sunday). They were trying to be offensive, but your offence is based on your skill level.

"There's a lot of discussion around, 'You have to be aggressive off half-back', but if you're always relying on moving the ball from defence to attack, you'll never win a premiership."

Murphy *almost* made a meal of this swift movement by the Bues. #AFLBluesNorth pic.twitter.com/NZTAf5LZUZ — AFL (@AFL) May 28, 2017

The lack of an obvious plan B when sides close down Carlton's short-kicking, possession-maintaining style – as the Bulldogs did on Sunday – was one fault Roos found.

But Roos said the competition's evenness worked in the Blues' favour, compared to recent eras dominated by the Brisbane Lions and Hawthorn flag three-peats and the great Geelong teams.

"They're not the top end now, so it's not that far away," he said.

"I reckon not next year but the year after, Carlton would be looking to play finals. I think Melbourne are probably 12 months to 18 months to two years ahead of them."