Blues coach Brett Ratten will have plenty to ponder in the aftermath of the 19-point loss to the Brisbane Lions on Thursday at the Gabba and he is entitled to feel a little dirty on his skipper.

The story of the game was Jonathan Brown's seven goals for the Lions in a brilliant display, but the Blues had their chances to win as entertaining a match as you could wish to see. And had they been a bit cleaner through the middle they may have been in a position - despite Brown's brilliance - to win the game. And that's where Chris Judd comes in.

Judd is serving a three-match suspension after a silly eye gouge in last year's elimination final. The Blues were never going to miss him in the season-opener against Richmond, but the Lions at the Gabba were a different matter and you have to think the Blues would not have been as sloppy with the ball, particularly in the first half, had their skipper been in the side.

Carlton's heroes from round one - Eddie Betts and Chris Yarran - booted six behinds between them and that lack of a power forward to really scare the opposition could really hurt Carlton all year.

And that would be a shame because Ratten has his team playing hard. The Blues appeared to be in deep trouble at half-time, but their third quarter was superb. They turned a 22-point deficit into a seven-point lead at the final change and appeared to have all the momentum.

But the Lions showed again how well they run games out, on this occasion on just a five-day break. It's how they finished off the Blues in the elimination final last year and West Coast last week. On this occasion it was all due to Brown. He torments the Blues on a regular basis and saw off three opponents in a clear best-on-ground-performance and in the final quarter, he was the difference between the sides.

Brendan Fevola chimed in with three goals and looked really dangerous early on. And while we are entitled to question what goes on in Fev's brain between games, he was clever enough on Thursday night to twig that the smartest thing he could do was to stay out of Brown's way.

The Lions also appear to have found a handy small forward in Todd Banfield, a local who was taken as a third-round selection at the 2008 draft before spending all of last year in the Lions reserves teams. And what also became apparent is how important a fit Josh Drummond is to the Lions. He sets up the Lions so often from half-back with his raking left-foot and the challenge for other teams going forward will be whether to assign him a defensive forward.

Two wins from two games for the Lions. This one was particularly impressive. Brown and Fevola have booted 18 goals between them in two games and if those numbers continue, then the Lions will be likely be right in the hunt for a top-four berth.

The Blues (1-1) are now in the midst of a difficult stretch, with Essendon, Adelaide and Geelong next on their schedule. They need to steal a couple of wins or they'll fall too far behind.

Having their skipper in the side would have helped them enormously on this particular occasion.