CARLTON coach Brett Ratten is not panicking after the Blues completed a winless pre-season campaign with a 16-point loss to North Melbourne at Visy Park on Sunday.

The Blues will face Richmond in round one without regular senior players Andrew Walker, Michael Jamison, Nick Duigan, Robbie Warnock and Jeremy Laidler.

The significance of Jamison's loss was underlined by an outstanding seven-goal performance by North vice-captain Drew Petrie, who dominated Blues defender Lachie Henderson in the air.

Despite the Blues' recent losses to Adelaide, Port Adelaide, Western Bulldogs, Brisbane Lions and North, Ratten said he had achieved his primary pre-season goal of managing his players' work loads and exposing youngsters to senior football.

"Today wasn't about winning or losing, it's probably (more) about the last bit of our preparation," Ratten said after the match.

"We just stuck to the plan … Are we worried that we didn't get the points against Port Adelaide and Adelaide (earlier in the NAB Cup)? Yeah, it would have been nice to win both of those games, but at the end of the day a healthy list is probably the main thing that we wanted to get out of this pre-season."

More pleasing for Ratten was his team's dominance of some key statistical counts against the Kangaroos. The Blues had 10 more inside 50s (and won the last quarter count 17-6), took 17 marks inside their forward 50 to the Kangaroos' seven and won the clearances at the centre bounces 20-10.

Despite being kept quiet by Liam Anthony in the first half, Ratten said he felt his captain Chris Judd (14 disposals) had worked his way into the game in the second half.

But Ratten was disappointed with the Blues' third quarter when they were outscored 7.3 to 3.1 and by their turnovers when under little or no pressure, especially when going inside their forward 50.

"We had to work so much harder for our goals and opportunities. I thought that was the difference between the two teams," Ratten said.

"Their effectiveness with not much pressure on versus our effectiveness with not pressure on, we turned the ball over a lot more than they did from those situations."

Interestingly, Ratten chose to use his three emergencies (Kane Lucas, Matthew Watson and Aaron Joseph), but the Kangaroos did not. North faded in the last quarter as Carlton dominated general play but could only cut eight points off North's 24-point three-quarter time lead.

Carlton had started Sunday's game impressively and led the Kangaroos by 16 points midway through the second quarter.

But Petrie, who had already kicked two goals to that point, kicked two late goals to get the Kangaroos back to within two points at half-time.

Those two goals were the start of nine straight for North as it charged out to a 40-point lead as three quarter-time approached.

But the Blues hit back with the next four goals, including two to Dennis Armfield, to get back to within 18 points early in the last term. But Shaun Hampson and Bryce Gibbs both missed chances to get the Blues back within two goals.

Consecutive goals to Leigh Adams and Macmillan midway through the quarter effectively put the result beyond doubt.

NORTH MELBOURNE             4. 2   8.5   15.8    18.  8  (116)
CARLTON                                   5. 3   8.7    11.8    15.10 (100)

GOALS
North Melbourne: Petrie 7, Edwards 2, Thomas 2, Swallow, Wells, McIntosh, Anthony, Harvey, Adams, Macmillan
Carlton: Robinson 2, Armfield 2, Garlett 2, Simpson 2, Waite 2, McLean, Scotland, Betts, Hampson, Watson

BEST
North Melbourne: Petrie, Harper, Bastinac, Swallow, Anthony, Wells, Firrito, Macmillan
Carlton: Kreuzer, Carrazzo, Waite, Murphy, Gibbs, Scotland

INJURIES
North Melbourne: Swallow (suspected broken nose)
Carlton:Nil

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Scott Jeffery, Chris Donlon, Brett Ritchie

Crowd: 9783 at Visy Park

Follow Nick Bowen on Twitter @AFL_Nick.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.