CARLTON coach Brett Ratten lauded his team's effort but lamented poor kicking for goal after the Blues lost an enthralling high-intensity contest to Geelong by two points at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.

The Blues kicked 3.6 to Geelong's 3.1 in the final quarter, with ruckman Robert Warnock missing a set shot from 15 metres out that would have put his team in front with less than two minutes to play.

"The effort that we put in was fantastic," Ratten said post-match.

"There's no doubt that the way the boys are playing and the hunger to compete and to keep applying themselves to the next contest is outstanding.

"I just think some of our finishing [means we] have to work one-and-a-bit times harder than the opposition, and it hurt us.

"We had our chances, we just couldn't put it through the big sticks."

A clearly proud yet frustrated Ratten felt the Blues had the better of general play, pointing out several wins on the stats sheet.

Carlton had more tackles (75-57), inside 50s (56-46) and scoring shots (30-27), but the coach wasn't prepared to concede that his team was satisfied merely to have pushed the AFL's unbeaten ladder leaders so close.

"It ticks another box to say we … really took it up to the Geelong footy club tonight, but I think the biggest thing is we missed out," he said.

"If there was 10 things that we wanted to do tonight, we would have ticked seven or eight of those, so there were enormous positives from tonight's game.

"But at the end, you've got to walk away and drive home and reflect that we didn't get the four points, and that's the hard bit."

The Blues had the first nine inside 50s of the match but failed to completely capitalise, entering the quarter-time break only 12 points in front.

Ratten was critical of his players' use of the ball around the 50-metre arc, suggesting ill-considered long bombs toward goal had been costly.

"I think we kicked too many long points again," he said.

"It's been an issue in the first seven weeks.

"We reviewed it, we spoke about it, and I think the first two or three shots at goal were just long points.

"We've got an inaccuracy issue, and we're giving the opposition a chance just to thump it through and reset and start again."

Carlton could drop out of the top four this weekend if Hawthorn beats Sydney on Sunday, but in Melbourne, Port Adelaide and the Brisbane Lions, the Blues face opponents they will be expected to beat over the next three rounds.