With Carlton potentially on the verge of notching the longest losing streak in their history, assistant coach Mark Riley says there are no quick solutions.

A defeat to Collingwood at the MCG on Sunday will be the Blues' 15th straight loss, breaking a record that has stood for more than a century.

But Riley said those within the club considered the streak irrelevant, with their focus more on the long-term aim of building a side that can win the Blues' 17th premiership.

"We've got a bit of work to do, we're coming from four wins and three wins in the last two years, we're not coming from middle of the road, 10 wins, 12 wins," Riley said Friday.

"We're starting off the backmarkers and we know how hard the task is and we're putting our nose to the grindstone and we're going for it."

Riley said a key focus was improving the club's defence.

Last season, the Blues were clearly the AFL's worst defensive team.

Riley said it was obvious the defensive aspects of Carlton's game were still not up to scratch on the basis of last round's 23.12 (150) to 21.8 (134) loss to Essendon.

"You can't come away with 150 points kicked against you and be happy and we weren't and we've gone to work this week," he said.

"But, as I said, you don't fix those things overnight.

"What we want to see is some incremental improvement in that area, just like we've seen incremental improvement in stopped plays, in contested ball, in ball going to our front 50."

Riley said the club's defence needed to improve across the ground, with defensive work in the forward line just as important as that done in the backline.

It is an area that will be tested on Sunday, given the ability the Magpies showed to initiate attacks from halfback in their thrashing of Richmond last weekend.

"Too many naive people think defence is the six people that stand in the back half of the oval, it doesn't work like that any more," Riley said.

"Defence is very closely correlated to how the ball is locked in your forward line, it's very correlated to the manner in which the opposition can attack into their forward line.

"It's an area we need to improve as a football team, not (just when) we're playing Collingwood ... it's certainly one of our focus areas this week and also future weeks going forward."

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