Carlton is looking decent enough on paper this week especially with their younger more talented players out there (exc Menzel).
Whiley will add genuine grunt in the middle. With Bell and Cripps in form and Judd back they will win the ball which I think makes them a genuine chance tonight.
Edit: we all knew that their depth was going to be the problem. There was a significant overreaction to the West Coast match because the 4 or 5 young and promising players who are now in the team were injured or not ready for the match. That they're the future and some of Carlton's better players made everything look much worse than it was.
Curnow, Ellard, Armfield and Wood are really the only foot soldiers that they have playing for them now with Yarran and Menzel presumably taking two of those spots.
Jones is enigmatic but continues to show signs. His work rate around the ball has been fine he just needs to time to settle into their system, to convert one more of his chances a game and work a bit harder to get a little more uncontested ball and he is a 2 goal, 5 to 7 mark (3 to 4 contested), 10 to 15 possession player and genuine target. He was never going to be Riewoldt or Hawkins, he was recruited to complement Carlton's key forward structure and there is not much more that he needs to do to be doing in order for him to be doing his job well.
If they can get a couple of goals out of Casboult a game it would be a real help. I'd leave him in the twos for a few weeks, playing him out of the square, so that he can work on a method for goal kicking out of the public spotlight (it goes without saying that the only training he would be doing in the next few weeks would be kicking practice).