THE SILENCE in the Carlton dressing room said a lot more than coach or player could, after their heartbreaking loss to the Sydney Swans at ANZ Stadium, but one thing remained certain and that is their skipper Chris Judd is still as big a star as anyone.

Carlton coach Brett Ratten affirmed that, by praising his captain who managed to rack up 10 quality and inspired possessions in the third term to bring his team back into the match, with Ratten labelling the performance as one to match that of any other player in the AFL this season.

"I said back to the box, our skipper is getting us into the game. His third quarter performance was as good as anyone this season and he said boys follow me and almost single-handedly won us the game," said Ratten.

As good as Judd was he missed two goal opportunities when he was within five to 10 metres

He wasn't alone though as Jarrad Waite was also culpable, missing a sitter in the final term, which would have given the Blues breathing space.

"Our dropped marks really hurt us today, we got the ball in we just couldn't convert, maybe at the end, our ability to defend went away," Ratten said.

"We had the ball in there for a big chunk of that first seven minutes and couldn't convert and then the ball went down and they scored and that changed the dynamics of the game.

"That's football though. (Trent) Dennis-Lane has had six kicks for the day and kicked four goals. I think between (Paul) Bevan and Dennis-Lane they have had 14 possessions for seven goals. That's a good return."

Though disappointed with another finals loss Ratten was pleased by the way his team played and what they were able to achieve this season, holding their ground despite the loss of Nick Stevens and key forward Brendan Fevola.

"People said we couldn't play finals, we couldn't score and even today that we were making up the numbers so to put that effort in I'm really proud of the players, but we have let another opportunity slip by."

"I think (Lachlan) Henderson showed tremendous progress. It was great to see (Robbie) Warnock get out there and do well. Waite's return from an ACL has been underestimated outside the football club for a big man to jump, leap and land the way he did.

"The group is still young and that's the big thing, the experience is something we want but you can't just inject it into the players to get them another 30 games, but maybe we'll look at getting another tall defender down the track."