“IT’S THE million dollar question for us at the moment.”

Carlton was once again left to rue a slow start against North Melbourne on Saturday night.

While the Blues would overturn a scoreless first quarter come half time, the opening five minutes of the 22-point loss to the Kangaroos was symbolic of the victors’ ascendancy at the centre bounce.

It was another case of Carlton having to play catch-up football, with the Game Changers only registering one goal in their five first quarters so far in 2021.

Speaking to media post-match, Senior Coach Daniel Harford said it was a trend the Blues simply had to buck if they’re to make something of their season.

“We’re going to have to change things up, we’re going to have to try something different,” Harford said.

“At the moment, clearly our first quarters are a huge problem for us and we’re behind two or three goals, whatever it might be any given week.

“It just makes the job that much harder in this level of footy.”

A young Carlton midfield missing the experience of Katie Loynes and the class of Madison Prespakis was humbled by the experienced North Melbourne on-ball brigade.

Hoping to take the positive out of the situation, Harford challenged his young chargers - the likes of Abbie McKay and the impressive Mimi Hill - to relish the chance to learn from the best.

“Hopefully they take heaps away from it. The best way to learn is to play against the best players in the competition,” he said.

“It’s part of the process of learning, to be up against the best and to find out what they do and why they’re the best. We got a lesson in that tonight.

“We’ve got a young, developing midfield against one of the most experience and one of the best in the business… their good players were the difference tonight.”

Prespakis is a certainty to return from suspension for next week’s clash with Geelong, while Harford flagged that co-captain Loynes could return to action after missing the last fortnight through injury.