Brendan Fevola's departure from Carlton has led to a whole range of possibilities for the Blues forward set-up next year - one of which includes champion midfielder Chris Judd.

Coach Brett Ratten has flagged the possibility of his skipper filling Fevola's old post at full-forward in 2010 to lessen the close attention Judd has received while on the ball in his three seasons with the Blues.

"I think we need to help Chris too to make sure that he doesn't get battered and bruised year-in, year-out," said Ratten.

"That's why we got (Brock) McLean in to help out in that regards and (Richard) Hadley will be back as well so, yeah, it'll be good for us to try Judd in that forward 50 as well."

Ratten envisaged increased opportunities for other players too to fill the vacuum in Carlton's attack left by Fevola who won his second Coleman Medal this year and booted 575 majors in 11 seasons to be the Blues' third-greatest goalkicker in history.

"We'll get to see Setanta (O'hAilpin) and does (Jarrad) Waite play forward or back when he comes back? And (Lachie) Henderson as well," said Ratten.

"Even some of our medium-sized players will get an opportunity to play down there."

"(Matthew) Kreuzer will be roundabouts, Matty's got the versatility to play most positions so he'll play sometimes down in that forward line too."

However, Ratten's revised plans for Judd next year aren't confined to the occasional stint up forward.

The Carlton coach's attempts to free up the talismanic midfielder in 2010 will also include more time spent as an outside midfielder after three years predominately on the inside.

"I think it's critical to most of the midfielders to have that balance to be able to play inside and outside," said Ratten.

"Whether that changes it for the taggers or make it hard for the opposition to tag a player that can do both ... we need to make it more unpredictable."

Ratten's game plan attracted criticism this season from some quarters, especially after Carlton's elimination final capitulation which saw it squander a five-goal lead in the last quarter to be beaten by the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.

And Ratten revealed that some tinkering will need to be done over the summer ahead of next season.

"We need to change our game plan a little bit when we have the ball and keep working extremely hard to win the footy back," he said.

"I think we've seen through the season there was parts of the game that we allowed the opposition to get in."

"When we even had the ball in our hands, we played to their, I suppose, advantage when we could have actually played a little bit different."