That's how you smash a hoodoo.

Six straight losses to Essendon didn't sit well at Visy Park, so Carlton made a statement at the MCG on Friday night, smashing the Bombers by 76 points, a win that just about ensures the Blues will be part of this year's finals.

It was the perfect antidote for last week's thrashing by Collingwood, which was followed by one of the great coaching bakes in recent memory and week of talkback radio fury.

Carlton supporters could not have scripted this one any better. Six goals to two in the opening term to take the ascendancy, then 10 goals to one in the final stanza. Chuck in a best on ground effort from the skipper and some really good efforts from some of the more maligned Blues of recent times.

Chris Judd's big game credentials could never be questioned, but 28 touches on a night his club needed some steel and some leadership was a tremendous return. This time around, he'll be thankful not to have carried the rest of the side on his ample shoulders.

Former Carlton skipper and now no.1 media cheerleader Robert Walls went through the Carlton list in reasonable detail in The Age on Friday and didn't miss. He was particularly scathing of Jarrad Waite, and such criticism probably wasn't easy for Walls to write given he was a premiership teammate of Waite's late father, Vin. "Time to stand up and deliver," wrote Walls and on this occasion, Waite did just that, with four goals.

Also pleasing for Walls and the rest of the Carlton nation would have been the form of Robbie Warnock. At a reported $400,000 per year, the former Docker didn't come cheap but in nearly two seasons, he has done diddly-squat. But he and Shaun Hampson proved a terrific combination in the ruck and for one night at least, the Blues didn't miss Matty Kreuzer, who is out for the year with a knee reconstruction.

Jeff Garlett booted six goals for the Blues and will share best afield honours with Judd. But that remains the question mark over the Blues. Their small forwards - Garlett, Chris Yarran and the mercurial Eddie Betts - have shown they can win games off their own boot, but whether that's the recipe for success in September remains to be seen.

The Bombers are officially cooked for 2010. They've won just seven games and can win no more than 10, which won't be enough to get them into the finals. The wins over North Melbourne and St Kilda over the previous fortnight proved to be false dawns.

And it was a bad result for North Melbourne and Melbourne, whose hopes of overtaking the Blues are now diminished. And it puts some pressure on Hawthorn, which will slip to eighth if it can't win at the SCG on Saturday against Sydney for only the second time in a decade. If the Hawks win, they'll be sixth, Carlton seventh and Sydney eighth.

If you're of the Hawthorn persuasion, the hope is that another hoodoo gets smashed at the SCG on Saturday afternoon.