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Blues may change structure

Carlton captain Chris Judd says the club may need to tinker with their strategies for Etihad Stadium after losing their fifth game from the last seven at the venue on Sunday.

The Blues were belted from pillar to post by the Crows over the weekend in a 69-point drubbing, leading many to question their form at their home ground, especially as they have averaged just 71 points in those five defeats.

Sunday's tally of 8.7 (55) was Carlton's worst score at the venue, a considerable effort considering the dark years the club endured from 2002 onwards, just edging out a score of 58 against the Bulldogs in 2010.

And the record was enough for Judd to concede that something may be amiss with their tactics for the venue.

"It's not something that's come up or been spoken about," said Judd.

"(But) I think we have played our best footy at the 'G (MCG) in the last 18 months.

"Certainly the games are different at Etihad Stadium to the MCG.

"It provides more of a counter-attacking game at Etihad Stadium because the ball can travel so quickly and you can use your foot skills to hit up uncontested marks if your team is running hard enough.

"(It's) much easier than at the MCG when you've got wind and the other elements to deal with, so it does stand for different styles of game and whether that's something we have to look into it, maybe."

On top of dealing with playing at Etihad, the Blues will have to make do without key midfielder Marc Murphy for at least the next four matches after scans on Monday confirmed he had suffered a fracture to a bone in his shoulder following a sickening clash with Crow Patrick Dangerfield.

Murphy joins another key player, Andrew Carrazzo, on the sidelines with a shoulder injury.

And Carlton need to overcome playing without both players, along with dealing with Sunday's confidence-sapping loss, over the next week ahead of playing Melbourne.

"We've certainly lost some important players and then there's probably some players that appear to be down on confidence," said Judd.

"So probably a host of factors (are behind our poor form).

"But it's certainly something we need to rectify and something I'm confident we will rectify in the next week," he said.

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