Carlton’s Chris Judd knows why Hawthorn have dominated his AFL club like no other in recent years and believes the Blues finally have the game plan to break that hold.

There are just two clubs Judd hasn’t beaten in a Carlton jumper.

One is Greater Western Sydney, because he hasn’t played them.

The other is Hawthorn, because they’ve dominated the Blues for eight years.

It’s that record and the Hawks’ standing as premiership favourites that makes Friday night’s Etihad Stadium clash so significant, Judd believes, rather than any need to respond to last Friday night’s fade-out loss to Essendon.

“If we’re going to improve, they’re the teams that we’ve got to come out and play well against and be able to beat,” Judd told reporters on Thursday.

“It’s a huge challenge for our group.

“I’ve never played in a Carlton jumper and beaten the Hawks so it’s a massive challenge.”

Judd says some important advances under Mick Malthouse this season have given Carlton confidence they’re finally capable of turning the tables.

“We’ve improved a lot at a lot of aspects of our game, particularly playing against counterattack teams,” he said.

He said in the past the Hawks have put extra players in defence, so even if the Blues win midfield contests Hawthorn create turnovers, stream forward and punish them.

“We’ve done a lot of work on that and I think we’ve made a huge amount of inroads in that area, as a lot of the stats will imply,” he said.

“That’s the reason we go into this game confident we can give it a good shake.”

Fixing that issue has involved across-the-board tinkering, from the way Carlton deliver the ball forward and their attacking set-up to the positioning of their midfield and defence.

Judd played down the significance of Carlton’s coach of the past five years, Brett Ratten, now assisting Hawthorn’s Alastair Clarkson, saying the Blues were no longer the same side.

“Ratts will have that knowledge of the playing group, but certainly our game style and structures have changed quite a lot this year so he won’t have intricate knowledge of that,” Judd said.

Clarkson, whose in-form club will reclaim top spot from Geelong if they win, also talked down the significance of Ratten’s presence and the two clubs’ lopsided head-to-head record.

“Their side has changed a fair bit and their coaching has changed in the last 12 months too,” he said.

“So we’ve got a new opponent in a sense.”