CARLTON coach Brett Ratten has refuted claims his players were disrespectful to Melbourne in the wake of the Blues' 47-point win at the MCG on Friday night.

The understrength Demons dictated terms in the first half of the scrappy game before Carlton showed greater endeavour at the stoppages to establish a stranglehold on the contest.

After the match, Blues pair Mitch Robinson and Dennis Armfield spoke publicly of their team's superior application in the second half, which some commentators saw as a slight on Melbourne's approach.

The term 'bruise-free' attributed to the Blues pair in their summations of the game drew an angry response from Demons' football manager Chris Connolly, but Ratten was a little bemused by the series of events when he addressed the media on Tuesday.

"I think that's been taken way out of context," Ratten said from Visy Park.

"What the players, from our point of view, were talking about was us not Melbourne.

"Whether we play Melbourne or whoever, we have a level of acceptance in certain areas of the game and I thought we were way, way off the mark in the first half and we spoke about that.

"What we said at half-time, as a coaching group, to our players was that we were playing at a level that was unacceptable. The vision even showed that with some of the efforts that we saw and we highlighted those in our review.

"We thought our second-half effort was a lot more competitive and really contested-type football.

"We didn't disrespect Melbourne [in our preparation] one bit."

The win was the Blues' sixth of the season and saw them strengthen their grip on a top-four berth ahead of the trip to Adelaide to take on the Power at AAMI Stadium on Sunday.

Ratten is hopeful defender Jordan Russell, who was subbed out of Friday night's match with hamstring tightness, will recover in time to take part, but he gave Nick Duigan, who experienced tightness in a gluteal muscle, a clean bill of health.

Jeremy Laidler will miss the next two to three weeks with a medial ligament strain, but the coach has plenty of selection options with Robbie Warnock (concussion) and Ed Curnow (shoulder) available, while Lachie Henderson and Ryan Houlihan have impressed in the VFL in recent weeks.

Matthew Kreuzer, who hasn't played since round 13 last season, is expected to need three to four games in the VFL in his comeback from a knee reconstruction before pressing for senior selection.

That time frame could have seen him make a return in round 12 against the Brisbane Lions, given he played his second game back at the weekend, but Ratten disputed those figures.

"I don't think you can count the first one," he said.

"When you play 50 per cent game time it's just an extra training session really. I look at it like he's played one game.

"He's progressing nicely, but we're not going to rush him back - that's something that we won't do. We won't put him under enormous pressure because he puts himself under enormous pressure.

"We'll manage that to make sure when he comes back he'll come back and have a really big effect with the group."