Tom Bell didn’t need any reminding someone of the dark Navy Blue persuasion had kicked a black cat at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.

“A few decisions didn’t really go our way at the end there and it’s obviously disappointing we didn’t come through with a win,” Bell lamented afterwards.

With Brock McLean a late withdrawal pre-match, and David Ellard, Dale Thomas and Troy Menzel all forced out of the game for various ailments, the remaining 19 were placed under enormous duress both physically and above the shoulders.

For Bell, the pain was truly palpable.

“Obviously it’s a team game and you don’t want to let your teammates down,” he said. “That’s obviously a driving factor and the boys did dig deep, but we just couldn’t get away with a win tonight.”

With the home and away season now drawing to its close, Bell can truly be considered amongst Carlton’s many individual success stories of 2014, particularly in the second half of the season after overcoming a finger injury.

A full pre-season held him in good stead for the winter campaign, to the point that he’s truly repaid the Senior Coach’s faith with a string of solid performances as a hard-bodied, hard-running midfielder with a good goal sense.

And like all of his on-field Carlton contemporaries, the boy from Morningside, just 26 senior games into the journey, appreciates that there is genuine optimism for this football team and where it is heading.