Visibly dejected and hobbling after his team had lost its sixth game by less than three goals, Kade Simpson tried to look on the bright side.

First, Carlton's big names had all fired – Judd, Murphy, Gibbs, Yarran, Thomas and even Simpson himself.

Second, the Blues had seemingly been in control of the match for large parts of it, especially during the third quarter.

And, finally, it was a top-four side which had narrowly taken the four points from Carlton's grasp, a side which boasted the League's next superstar in Nathan Fyfe.

But, while he spoke of the positives Carlton could take from the game, the look on Simpson's face continued telling a different story. He had clearly taken the loss very hard.

And why shouldn't he? Had Carlton won three of its six close games, it would now sit outside the top eight only by virtue of its poor percentage. Finals would be a real possibility.

Simpson blamed a lack of consistency for Carlton's demise.

"We've been in a lot of games but, apart from the last two weeks, we probably haven't played four quarters all season," Simpson said.

"You are not going to win too many games if you can't string four good consistent quarters together. It just feels like we are playing some good footy at the moment against some good quality opposition.

"So, we will take some things out of this game. We've got four games left and we aren't going to roll over, we will keep testing ourselves and keep building towards next year."

Against Fremantle, vice-captain Simpson set the early standard for Carlton, gathering 22 disposals to three-quarter-time. He faded in the final term, kicking a goal from his only possession, as the home team worked its way back into the game.

Simpson said his side should have closed the door on the Dockers during the third quarter.

"I think if we had kicked a bit straighter we could have broken the game open," he said.

"It was a pretty low scoring game up until three-quarter-game and I think we missed a few easy goals in the second and the third.

"If we kicked a bit straighter, we would have had a bigger lead. But we still had a lead and we were still in a position to win the game in the last and couldn't hang on.

"And we pretty much had the game in our hands and we made a couple of costly mistakes late. When you do that against a good side, they make you pay."

Simpson said he thought Carlton's midfield was on top for most of the game, though he described Fremantle midfielder Nathan Fyfe as a "freak show".

He said Carlton's remaining games would help the club to plan for next season.

"We are trying and tinkering with a few things, experimenting with the way we want to go forward and the way we want to play in the coming year and we will continue to do that," he said.

"We have some tough tests coming up, so we are going to test ourselves against sides that are in the eight. If we want to play finals next year, we have got to beat these teams."

But it was clear Simpson wasn't quite ready to move on from such a close loss.

"I'm just a bit gutted at the moment, but maybe once we do the review we will find some more positives in there," he said.