CARLTON coach Brett Ratten has lamented the slow starts against Richmond and Collingwood that may have doomed the Blues' NAB Cup campaign.

The Blues recovered to post an 18-point victory over the Tigers, but fell to the Pies by seven points to leave them on the brink of elimination.

Two 'lucky losers' will progress beyond the pool stage of the competition with Adelaide already posting a higher percentage than the Blues, who must now await the results of the next four pool fixtures.

"I thought in the first game we were really slow to get started and then we got going and really got our hands on the football, which was really pleasing," Ratten said.

"I thought there were some good performances in that game.

"We got going toward the back end of the [second] game, so it sort of mirrored the first game.

"By the end of it we had 11 shots to eight and maybe if it had of gone a bit longer then we were up and running."

Ratten expressed his desire to stay in the competition, but agreed it appeared a forlorn hope.

A rolled ankle to Setanta O'hAilpin in the first half of the second match upset the Blues' forward structure for a period according to the coach, but he was pleased with how his players were able to adapt.

Ratten made several changes to his line-up after the first game and admitted the long break while Richmond and Collingwood played had proved tricky to negotiate.

"It was interesting. The players were going through a warm-up stage again and again and again," he said.

"We'd go outside and come back in and things like that, but I thought they adapted really well.

"There are no excuses. It was the hand we were dealt, we had to do the best we could and I thought the players did really well. I'm not sure how much it was the difference between the teams."

Despite the mixed results, Ratten was delighted to have given inexperienced players like Levi Casboult, Andrew McInnes, Rohan Kerr, Wayde Twomey and Nick Duigan some exposure at the level.

The coach joined the chorus of disapproval at the contentious out of bounds rule trialled during the first round of which he said went against "the principles of the game".