Carlton coach Mick Malthouse remains adamant his AFL team is playing better football in 2014 than last year.

Ahead of their Friday night clash with North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium, Malthouse said last year’s semi-finalists had improved despite their 5-11 win-loss tally.

Malthouse says he focuses more on effort than results although he admits not everyone sees it the same way.

“Some media I do read and there’s the suggestion that I’m mad because I said we’re playing better football than last year,” Malthouse told a media conference on Thursday.

“There are a lot of games this year where we have played comprehensively better than last year.

“We never challenged the top sides last year.

“This year, I thought we really challenged Hawthorn; we massively challenged Geelong; we played and beat Adelaide.”

He also felt they pushed competition leaders Sydney and forced them to play “deep and hard football” to beat the Blues.

Malthouse said his side had badly missed ruckman Matthew Kreuzer while other injuries hadn’t allowed them to build consistency through a steady line-up.

The upside of that was that they’ve uncovered Dylan Buckley, Levi Casboult, Sam Docherty and Blaine Johnson.

Malthouse said while the sixth-placed Kangaroos were playing for finals, his team had spoken about playing for their fans.

“The Kangaroos are a dangerous animal because they sniff finals,” he said.

“We know they’re a form side and have got some confidence.

“We want our members to think we’re playing for keeps.”

Malthouse dismissed the idea that veteran midfielder Chris Judd could be reinvented as a tagger.

“It’s not styled for him and his body’s not equipped for it,” Malthouse said.

“You’ve got to be very durable and ready for a pretty big whacking.

“If you want a quick retirement, that’s one way because his body won’t hold up to it.”