The majority of the public debate has been about Judd's character and the effect his chicken wing tackle will have on his reputation. ??
The coach backed his skipper to the hilt in that regard at a crowded media conference on Wednesday, but as soon as he walked out the door of the press room, his focus would have immediately switched to a more pressing question - 'just how do I replace my captain and key playmaker?
'??If this had happened with Marc Murphy and Andy Carrazzo still nursing broken shoulders, then the answer would have been 'I just can't', but with those two back in the team, Ratten at least has some chance at resurrecting Carlton's season over the next month.
"You throw our best and fairest winner, Marc Murphy, in there and say, 'Murph you've had a week under your belt, now let's go for it and just replace the skipper'," Ratten replied somewhat facetiously when asked how he planned to proceed.??
As is often his style, the coach was trying to lighten the mood of what had been a pretty intense grilling about Judd, but he's actually not far off the mark.??
Murphy has to be the man to lead the Blues back into contention. He doesn't quite have to don the Superman cape, but he will have to shoulder (pardon the pun) a lot of the burden in the next four weeks.??
That's not really fair given he's just back from seven weeks out, but that's his lot right now.??
Murphy started the season in blistering form, averaging just over 32 possessions a game in the first month, and he needs to recapture that form quickly with Judd gone.
Murphy will now likely have to deal with the opposition's best tagger each week. He lost a bit of muscle during his injury layoff, but he should still have the miles in the legs to run games out. ??
Some will point the finger at another No.1 draft pick in Bryce Gibbs, and there's no doubt he'll need to step up too, but he won't be able to do the heavy lifting around the stoppages that Murphy can simply because Ratten still feels strongly that the team is better served when Gibbs is plugging gaps down back and pinch-hitting in the middle. ??
Ratten believes the next month "might be a defining moment for some individuals". In a midfield sense that most applies to players like Brock McLean, Ed Curnow, David Ellard, Andy Collins and Kane Lucas, who must grasp the opportunities that Ratten says will be there for the taking.??
"[This year] has probably shown that we have depth there, but some of those players haven't been able to maintain it for more than three weeks at senior level and then it falls away," the coach said.??
"I think this will be a great four weeks for them to get their teeth into."??While replacing Judd is the question at the forefront of the coach's mind, others will be pondering how his absence might affect Ratten's chances of holding onto his job.??
Word out of Visy Park is that club power brokers aren't blind to the fact the coach has had to deal with a string of personnel disasters in a season that started with top-four declarations.??
On top of Carrazzo and Murphy, Jarrad Waite, Jeremy Laidler, Lachie Henderson, Shaun Hampson, Kade Simpson, Rob Warnock and Chris Yarran have all had injury layoffs of varying lengths, which have exposed the lack of depth at the club.
The saving grace for the Blues is they play three sides currently outside the eight in the next month. If - and it is a big if - they can dig deep and beat the Bulldogs, Richmond and the Brisbane Lions then clearly things will be looking up for Ratten.
The one thing the Carlton board and supporters will be looking for, regardless of the results, will be a consistency of effort that has been lacking since the deflating loss against Essendon in round four.??
But while the Blues' predicament could unite them, it could easily have the opposite effect, in which case there will be even more serious questions to be answered at year's end. ? ?
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
