CARLTON midfielder David Ellard says the Blues were left "shattered" by Saturday night's 54-point loss to Port Adelaide, describing it as the side's worst of the season.

The Blues were outplayed by a ferocious Power unit, who were simply harder at the football in wet and slippery conditions.

Carlton couldn't match Port in the hardness stakes, registering significantly fewer contested marks and possessions.

Ellard, the Blue's best in the loss with 27 disposals, six tackles and six clearances, was clearly hurting after the game and said his club was left wanting at the contests.

"It's very disappointing, we came over here with a very good record and we thought we'd dish up a better performance than that," he said.

"After last week we wanted to build on that … we're shattered that we dished up that [against Port].

"In those conditions that's what it's all about, just winning the hardball and getting yardage with the footy."

The 23-year-old showcased the fight needed by his teammates on Saturday night and admitted that, when the game was there to be decided, the Blues didn't turn up.

He said the club had missed the leadership of such injured players as Andrew Carrazzo and Marc Murphy, not to mention their on-field exploits.

Ellard said the club's lengthy injury list offered players a unique opportunity to stake their claim in the side, but that few had done that against the Power.

"Their leadership on the field is hard to replace, [so is] their performance. Marc Murphy is very hard to replace, Andrew Carrazzo is very hard to replace," he said.

"It gives blokes opportunities to stand up and we thought we had some blokes stand up last week, but probably not this week.

"The opportunity is there but blokes need to really grab it."

Carlton now faces battling Geelong next weekend and then West Coast the week after, on the back of three losses in their last month of football.

Rather than blame a lack of depth in his side's list, Ellard said they had moved away from playing the brand of football that saw Carlton smash Collingwood by 10 goals in round three.

"I think our depth's pretty good, we just need to get back to the basics and what we pride ourselves on as a footy club," he said.

"We've got to focus on getting back to winning that contested footy, winning our tackles and doing those hard little things that are going to win a game of footy."

Ellard dismissed suggestions the Blues could no longer be thought of as premiership challengers, claiming the side still held belief their best would be good enough.

"We're going to have to find something … but we're not writing ourselves off, we know we can still play a good brand of footy and we're a good side," he said.

"I think this group's still more than capable of [contending], but at the moment the footy that we're playing isn't not going to get us there.

"We'll work on it throughout the week and get back to doing what we do best and hopefully it's not too far away."

Harry Thring covers news for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.