CARLTON coach Brett Ratten lamented his players' inability to win the hard ball during a 51-point loss to the Kangaroos that he described as a reality check for his team.

"It's probably the biggest game we've had for seven years as a footy club and we got comprehensively beaten, especially at the contested footy," Ratten said after the match the Blues needed to win to maintain a realistic chance at making the finals.

"Stoppages have been our go [this year] and our work rate, but all in all they beat us inside the game and then they beat us outside as well.

"In that part of the game they absolutely toweled us, especially at centre bounces. They scored from their thrusts forward and they just did it really well and hit the scoreboard.

"Full credit to them, they're going to be a big problem for a lot of teams in September."

Ratten believed the Roos were right up there with the best teams Carlton has played this season and said his players could learn a lot from the way they went about their football.

"If you do play your part, you don't have to be best on ground, but your team gets the result that they need to get and I think that's the biggest lesson for us," he said.

The Blues were uncharacteristically flat after quarter-time which Ratten couldn't explain given his side had an extra day's break.

Ratten also struggled to fathom why Carlton fell back into the unhealthy habit of consistently looking for spearhead Brendan Fevola going into attack.

Fevola finished with six goals to keep the race for the Coleman Medal interesting and the coach said he was not to blame for presenting a strong option.

"I don't think it's Brendan's fault. I think each bloke is virtually the captain of the team when they've got the ball in their hands and they just need to use it a little bit differently at times,” he said.

"Until other players start kicking three and four goals no-one's going to worry about playing on them and they'll just keep falling back into the hole [in front of Brendan]. If someone's got three goals behind their name the opposition start looking a little bit closer.

"If you go down that path [of having one primary target] you probably won't make the top eight. Sometimes we went out of our way to kick the ball to him. I thought he played fairly well, he started off well and competed hard, but if we can't get other players in that front 50 [we'll struggle]."

The mercurial forward was involved in an incident that saw Leigh Harding kick a goal after receiving two 50m penalties just before half-time, but Ratten said Shaun Grigg had been responsible for one penalty and felt it was just a misunderstanding rather than an act of ill-discipline on Fevola's behalf for the other.