CARLTON is confronting a rucking conundrum about whether to chase an experienced ruckman or wait on Matthew Kreuzer to develop after coach Brett Ratten admitted the side was routinely being cruelled in the hitouts.

With a midfield rapidly establishing itself among the elite in the competition — a point Paul Roos observed yesterday — Carlton's rucks are not arriving at their potential at the same pace, leaving the team's development uneven.

"What do you (do) in the ruck, do you bring players in? Do you sit back and let your players develop? That is the conundrum," Ratten said after the Blues gave up a 29-point lead to lose by two to Sydney.. "Most weeks we are giving the opposition around 30 hitouts more.

"We are pretty much bottom in hitouts, us and Richmond … so I think our midfield do an outstanding job in clearances."

Of more immediate concern was Andrew Walker, who had scans of the shoulder he injured in the third quarter. In just his first game of the season after having shoulder surgery, Walker injured his "good" shoulder in the match and sat out the last quarter on the bench.

"Because he has hurt his good shoulder it was more precautionary — do we take a risk? Could something terrible go wrong?" Ratten said.

Brendan Fevola suffered a corked thigh in the second quarter but managed to come back on the ground albeit somewhat troubled by the injury. When he returned to the ground he passed a ball instead of taking a shot himself despite being 35 metres out directly in front.

The pass ended in a turn-over and a missed opportunity. Regardless, he finished the game with five goals.

"I think he was trying to do the team thing and it came unstuck. Unfortunate when you lose by that but that is the way it goes," Ratten said.

The loss leaves Carlton two games out of the eight with six games to play but Ratten was unprepared to surrender the season yet.

"We haven't taken our eye off what we would like to achieve through the year, but I suppose there is that glimmer of hope," he said. "We spoke about that after the game — that there have been some interesting results this week already and there will be some interesting results to come with teams you don't think should win and they do. Things can change very quickly.".

Carlton's two chief play makers Chris Judd and Nick Stevens were blanketed out of the game by the Swans, with the pair collecting only 14 and 11 possessions respectively. Judd had just four touches in the second half and Stevens six.

"I suppose those two boys were down a bit on their usual output, but we knew Sydney would play man for man and try to suffocate us," Ratten said.

The Blues are likely to welcome Paul Bower, Richard Hadley, Ryan Houlihan and Jordan Bannister back into the side in coming weeks.