CARLTON takes an unenviable record into Friday night's clash against North Melbourne, but Brett Ratten has warned the Kangaroos his team is a different proposition this year.

North has won seven of the past eight encounters between the teams and will play its first, and only, Friday night fixture of the season this week.

The Blues, however, are entrenched in the top four and well placed to spoil the party.

"They always request us, so whether they think it's a great opportunity to get a win and celebrate Friday night footy? I'm not sure," Ratten said from Visy Park on Wednesday.

"We'll have to change a few things to help change that ledger that's been created over the last two or three years."

The Blues are slowly emerging from a run of injuries to key players, with Andrew Carrazzo and Jordan Russell likely to be available this week.

Jarrad Waite will definitely not play against the Roos and will be "touch and go" for next week according to Ratten. Michael Jamison is set to make a timely return from a knee injury ahead of the team's finals campaign in two to three weeks.

Matthew Kreuzer will play his eighth match back from a knee reconstruction with Ratten saying an incident against Essendon last weekend in which the ruckman appeared to pull up sore had been no cause for concern.

Carlton takes the confidence gained from a 74-point thrashing of its traditional rival into the match. The big win came after a run of three losses in four games and Ratten agreed his players had regained their focus against the Bombers.

"At times in seasons you do have flat periods or you don't look as 'on' in some weeks, but it was good to see the boys really enjoying themselves and running - that's the key part," he said.

"Our run toward the end of the game was something that saw us really getting back over the top of the ground again. I thought our spread was really good so that was really encouraging."