THE RETURN of ruckman Matthew Kreuzer has been the biggest positive to come out of the past month for Carlton.

Blues teammate Simon White describes Kreuzer as a heart and soul player that gives everything he has every week, while John Barker wishes every player could replicate Kreuzer's intensity. 

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The 26-year-old showed his value in Friday night's 30-point loss to Richmond in just his fifth game in two seasons, competing hard and winning 14 disposals.

Statistics often don't tell the story with Kreuzer, as he clears a path for his midfield and sets a standard for his teammates to follow.

"The midfielders grow a leg when he is in there and throwing his body around," White told AFL.com.au.

White, who was forced on to Richmond's Jack Riewoldt in the first quarter and battled hard, said the team was lucky to have the 200cm ruckman in the team.

"He's fantastic. He's one of a kind," White said.

Barker said the team knows how valuable Kreuzer is, and indicated how sorely he'd been missed when a foot injury kept him on the sidelines between round one last year and his return in round 10 this season. 

"He's a really good story for us and we know what impact he has when he plays," Barker said.

White bemoaned Carlton's skill errors on Friday night, and conceded losing Michael Jamison had an impact. However he said first-gamer Tom Fields battled hard and would have learned plenty from the experience.

"I thought he did really well 'Fieldsy', but when a bloke like your leader [Jamison] goes down [they're] hard to cover sometimes," White said.