Those close to Judd and others in the football industry do not expect him to continue beyond this season – Wayne Carey has already declared Judd will retire – but the man himself says he has yet to come to a decision.

Since returning from a hamstring injury in round 13, Judd has had a strong season, averaging 21 disposals, including 11 contested, five clearances, four tackles, four inside 50s and 1.4 score assists a game.

The Blues have also adopted a cautious approach with his game time – he is averaging 6.28 minutes per stint on the field before heading to the bench for a breather. Gary Ablett, for instance, averaged 13.55 minutes per stint before heading to the pine.

In an interview on his club's website, Judd said he was confident the Blues, who will miss the finals this year, were improving.

"Yes – and these are the sort of things you have to weigh up. The team is becoming more competitive across the whole group, and I think that desire to win is more evenly spread across the whole 22 players who enter the field each week," he said on Friday. "That probably hasn’t been a real strong suit of this club in my time here."

Judd said when he first joined the Blues in a blockbuster trade ahead of the 2008 season, many of his teammates had simply been in survival mode in terms of preserving their contracts and spots in the team.

"Yeah. When your club has had poor results for a long time, players tend to focus more on surviving the experience rather than achieving anything. When I first got here seven years ago, a large number of players were probably more focused on just getting a contract or, if they were good players, on getting good contracts than they were focused on how we were going to achieve anything as a group, because that’s just what happens in organisations that are underperforming – and that’s not unique to this club," he said. "That would happen across the board in companies across the world and poor-performing sports clubs alike. But that has gradually changed in my time here, which is much for the better, to the point that you’re really confident with all the 22 guys who take to the field that they really want to win for the club on the day. And that level of confidence is the highest it’s been in my time here, and that’s really encouraging and something worth thinking about."

Judd recently said the Blues needed "obsessive and really driven" players if the club was to again emerge as an on-field power. However, an early-morning brawl this week involving Jeff Garlett and Mitch Robinson, leading to Garlett being suspended and Robinson having a fractured eye socket, has led to questions on whether the entire playing list is committed to a rebirth. Robinson and Garlett are off contract and face a fight to remain at the club.

Judd will notch his 134th match for the Blues when he lines up against the Gold Coast Suns on Saturday – the same number he managed with the West Coast Eagles. If he goes on, he will play as a 31-year-old, the age Collingwood great Nathan Buckley was when he claimed his Brownlow Medal in 2003. However, Judd's body has taken its share of batterings after he adopted more of an inside midfielder role upon joining the Blues. Brisbane great Michael Voss, his body also worn down by years of punishment, retired at 31.