His Blues face on an in-form North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Friday night, and then Fremantle, Gold Coast, Geelong, Port Adelaide and Essendon – all in the top half of the ladder.

Malthouse's team has lost patience with ruckman Robbie Warnock, dropping him and recent debutant Blaine Johnson and losing Andrew Walker to injury. They have been replaced by former Collingwood ruckman Cameron Wood, for his Blues debut, along with Troy Menzel and 100-gamer Mitch Robinson.

North has regained Jack Ziebell (knee) and Luke McDonald (ill), and omitted Luke Delaney and Brad McKenzie to make room for them.

Carlton’s results against sides in the top eight this season have been miserable, having lost all seven of them.

The only match it had a chance of winning well into the fourth quarter was the round 12 game against Geelong, where it was beaten by a last-gasp goal from Cats skipper Joel Selwood.

Of its five wins, including two against wooden spoon contender St Kilda, only Adelaide is in finals contention.

Last year the Blues won three of their 10 matches against fellow finalists – Port Adelaide twice and Richmond. They lost all four of their games against the top four sides but were within four goals of the opposition at the final siren in three of them.

On current form the Blues could end this season with no wins from 13 matches against top eight opponents.

Malthouse, nevertheless, believes the club is playing better against the competition’s best sides, an opinion be acknowledges others think is “mad”.

“There are a lot of games this year where we have played comprehensively better than last year," he said. "We never challenged the top sides last year. We tried to but we didn't.

“This year, I thought we really challenged Hawthorn, we massively challenged Geelong ... [and] I'm very confident to say that last week of football, regardless of how Sydney may have thought they played, I thought we forced them to have to play deep and hard football to beat us.”

Malthouse said the issue of whether Carlton had improved could not solely be judged on wins and losses. “To me, it's not all doom and gloom.”

The Blues’ form has ruled them out of finals contention this season, but they will be eager to win back some respect in what has been a bitterly disappointing 150th-anniversary season.

The Kangaroos, sitting sixth on the ladder, have been held back by their highly inconsistent results, and will be desperate for a win to bolster their finals chances.

A win against the Blues, which would equal their season best of three in succession, would aid their chances of a top four berth if any higher rivals stumble.

Malthouse said he considered the Kangaroos dangerous because they can “sniff finals. We know they're a form side, we know they've got some confidence."