Carlton will chase a gun midfielder during the trade and free agency period at end of the season

CARLTON has a salary cap war chest and is now ready to launch a free agency raid at the end of the season, believing its list is now in a position where it will benefit from luring a gun midfielder to help Patrick Cripps and Marc Murphy.

West Coast's Andrew Gaff is a free agent at the end of the season and hails from Victoria.

A CASHED-UP Carlton will chase a blue-chip midfielder as it enters this year’s free agency market confident its strategic rebuild remains on course, despite a winless start to 2018.

While the Blues have been extremely disappointed with their 0-4 start, the club’s general manager of football Andrew McKay has urged fans to remain patient ahead of Saturday’s clash with West Coast at the MCG.

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McKay said the club won’t deviate from a plan set in place after coach Brendon Bolton’s appointment in late 2015, saying cutting corners would hurt the Blues in the long-run.

That involves a concerted push to seek the most suitable midfield free agent in October in an effort to fill a mid-20s void on the club’s playing list, and to help support stars such as Marc Murphy and Patrick Cripps.

“We are certainly in the free agency market,” McKay told the Herald Sun. “It has been about the timing of when to decide to seek a free agent ... we think the timing is pretty good now.

West Coast's Andrew Gaff is a free agent at the end of the season and hails from Victoria.

“We have got some young midfielders coming through in (Paddy) Dow, (Lochie), O’Brien and Charlie (Curnow) will go through there,” he said.

“But we still need those experienced heads that can rotate through the midfield to take pressure off ‘Murph’ and ‘Crippa’.”

Carlton has so far resisted the temptation to target top-end free agents under Bolton, believing the list profile was not yet compatible with players in their mid-20s.

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McKay was unwilling to discuss potential targets.

Among the midfielders eligible for free agency this year are West Coast’s Andrew Gaff and Bulldog Luke Dahlhaus, while Adelaide’s Rory Sloane could be deemed too old for the Blues, given he will turn 29 before the start of next season.

Collingwood’s Jordan De Goey is out of contract this year and while not a free agent, could be considered.

Luke Dahlhaus is also a free agent if he doesn’t re-sign with the Bulldogs.

McKay accepted the criticism levelled at the club for its poor start to the season, but said Bolton would stay the course.

“We understand Carlton hasn’t had much, or any success, for quite some time, but we really stripped it back two years and four games ago,” he said.

“We said we would go to the draft and pick young kids because we need to do it from the bottom (up).

“We are in the process of doing that, and that means getting a lot of young players on board and those players need time to develop.

“Our difficulty is we live in an impatient industry, which is fine, because the fans and members want success as quickly as possible — and so do we.

Patrick Cripps needs some help in the midfield. Picture: Michael Klein

As does captain Marc Murphy.

“But we want to do this properly, which takes times, rather than trying to patch holes.”

McKay conceded the team needed to tighten up its defensive structures — a cornerstone of Bolton’s first two seasons — but that won’t stop them trying to add an offensive layer.

“We need to rectify that a little, but we still need to keep an eye on being able to kick goals,” he said.

Injuries to key players such as Murphy, Sam Docherty and Matthew Kreuzer have hurt, but McKay doesn’t use that as an excuse, though he thinks people should be willing to give young footballers — even top-end draft picks — time to find their feet.

“A couple of wins in the JLT (series) increased the expectation on us, as it should, and then we haven’t played as well as we would have liked,” he said.

“But we need to be mindful of where we have come from and the steps we still need to take to get to where we are going.”

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