LIAM Jones' overzealous approach to defending Suns star Tom Lynch was symptomatic of Carlton's need to find a greater balance between offence and defence, coach Brendon Bolton says.

Lynch dominated Jones to the tune of eight goals last week in unbeaten Gold Coast's 34-point defeat of the 0-2 Blues at Etihad Stadium.

In one match-up between them, Jones – a revelation in his reincarnation as a defender in the second half of 2017 – attacked the football, misread it and left Lynch to run into an open goal.

Carlton's defensive style last season kept it in many contests, but no team scored fewer points than the Blues, who haven't scored a triple-digit total in 35 games.

Bolton's men are playing bolder football this season, but have conceded 121 inside 50s in the opening two rounds – the third-most in the competition.

"That's what's made him step up, his attack on the footy, and going and not hesitating," Bolton said of Jones.

"(But) Liam, a little bit like our group, is learning to find the balance between offence and defence and they'll work through that and I think it will get tighter and better week by week.

"The guys, by and large, are just learning that understanding of offence and defence and how one affects the other … and once that clicks, consistency will grow."

Carlton has won two of its past three clashes with Nathan Buckley's Collingwood, with the great rivals preparing to meet under Friday night lights at the MCG in round three.

Matthew Kreuzer (groin) and Matthew Kennedy (ankle) will return for the match, while under-siege swingman Jacob Weitering has survived the axe.

Irish half-back Ciaran Byrne (quad) is set to miss the next month.

Neither team has a win this year, but while Bolton said the timeslot provided "a fantastic learning opportunity", he added the club's early win-loss record was not a concern.

"Pressure is part of the landscape. Every week there's an element of pressure, but this whole year's going to stay the same (for our players)," he said.

"We're going to build synergy and chemistry, because they haven't been together a lot, but we're not going to put any ceiling on them – we're going to hold them to really high account.

"The pressure's the pressure they're putting on themselves, in terms of they have high expectations – and that's a good thing.

"You can catastrophise it and jump and try and change things too quickly."

Bolton also said the scrutiny on Buckley was premature and called for it to be "tempered" while dismissing the impact of injuries on each side.

"All clubs miss players – that's part of it and that's why the game's so brutal," he said.

"We've had (Darcy) Lang out, we've had (Tom) Williamson out, we've got (Sam) Docherty out and the last few weeks we've had Kennedy and Kreuzer out.

"That's part of it and you've just got to front up with what you've got and I'm sure Collingwood will front up with what they've got as well."