CARLTON coach Brett Ratten is not buying into the doom and gloom surrounding injury-stricken West Coast and is expecting a torrid encounter at Subiaco on Friday night.

Ratten, who has to contend with a growing injury list of his own, believes the Eagles’ poor start to the season will have little bearing once the two teams run out onto the ground.

“I think it makes them very dangerous,” Ratten said at MC Labour Park on Wednesday.

“They are a very proud club, the Eagles, and history show they are a powerful club. They’ve got a lot of pride and they’ll come out swinging.

“I think both teams will be pretty aggressive this week and it’s a real chance to get the points for both teams so I think the game will be played very physically.

“I’m not worrying about trying to smack the Eagles, I’m trying to get a victory so I’ll take one point.”

Former crowd favourite Chris Judd will play his first match in Perth since crossing to Carlton in the off-season and Ratten pledged the Blues would support their skipper in what promises to be a hot reception on the field.

While he expressed a hope that Judd would be well-received by the Eagle faithful he said it would have little effect on the champion’s performance either way.  

“Players will probably get into him and give him a mouthful and a hit here [or there], but we’ll support Chris 100 per cent. We’ll make sure he has a good return back to Perth,” he said.

“I think the service that he’s given to West Coast footy club and the respect for what he’s done in his career over there; I’d hope they would cheer him or maybe not boo him [at least].

“He’s super professional and the way he goes about it I don’t think it will be much different.”

The West Coast premiership player will be involved in the Blues’ midfield planning meeting in the lead-in to the match, but Ratten admitted the Eagles are a more unpredictable prospect without the suspended Daniel Kerr and possibly Dean Cox, who is battling a foot injury.

The Blues’ coach felt a few key mistakes cost his side dearly in least week’s loss to Adelaide and said he would be doing his utmost to rectify the wayward early goal kicking that left the door open for the Crows.

Six rounds into the season, Carlton is yet to win a last quarter of football, but Ratten said there were extenuating circumstances on Saturday.

“I don’t think they’re a big issue,” he said.

“I think at the start of the year we might have been underdone a little bit in rounds one and two from that point of view, but I think we’re fit enough. On the weekend you lose one player at the nine-minute mark and then one player at the four-minute mark of the second quarter; that doesn’t assist you to run out games.

“Eddie Betts’ workload went up about 20 per cent so he played about 96 per cent of the game time which is really high for Eddie and some of the other blokes just lose a bit of zip towards the end of the game.”