Marc Murphy believes Carlton's loss in the NAB Cup Grand Final could prove a blessing in disguise.

The Blues led the Brisbane Lions by 13 points at half-time on Friday night before being outscored 9.8 to just 1.2 to go down by 40 points.

Carlton had few winners on the night but, according to new captain Murphy, the defeat might well be a good thing for the Blues' development under coach Mick Malthouse.

"There's no cause for concern," he told AFL.com.au on Wednesday. "We were disappointed with the way we finished off the game but we had a very good NAB Cup campaign before that, so we definitely won’t be dropping our heads over that loss, especially with round one just around the corner.

"We've gone through the tape and had a close look at a few areas we can improve on, so in funny way it's good that we've actually had that opportunity in a practice game.

"It obviously would have been nice to win but that might have covered up some of the things we haven’t been doing all that well. A loss like that highlights those aspects a bit more because there's no hiding from them.

"Our motivation levels will be where they need to be next Thursday night against Richmond. We've got three or four sessions on the track to rectify a few areas before then."

One of those areas is their work around stoppages, which has been one of the Blues' strengths since Chris Judd joined the club.

They were beaten in the clearances in their last two NAB Cup games against Adelaide and Brisbane. Most damning on Friday night was their centre takeaway tally of just seven, which was dwarfed by the Lions' 19.

Admittedly, the Blues' midfield hasn’t yet been full strength, with an in-form Bryce Gibbs rested against the Crows and an underdone Chris Judd making his first appearance for the season against the Lions.

Murphy was unconcerned with the clearance situation, believing the Blues' ball-winners would quickly regain momentum.

"Whether Brisbane were just harder at the ball or they were reading the taps better, it's something we've been looking at yesterday and today in our midfield meetings to try to correct it," he said.

"You'd love to have your three or four main midfielders in there every time and winning the clearances more often than not, but these days you need nine or 10 guys who can go through there, and that's what we've been trying to develop through the pre-season.

"In the NAB Cup we tried to experiment and mix things up a bit and give opportunities to guys to go in there who haven't been in there in the past and see how they handle themselves. And that includes little forwards going in there to relieve your main midfielders. I think we've done that pretty well."