Carlton coach Brett Ratten will continue to resist the urge to throw young gun Matthew Kreuzer up forward despite the Blues ending their pre-season campaign with another loss on Friday night.

The Blues went down to Adelaide by one point at Visy Park despite the Crows having far more senior players unavailable than the Blues for the last practice match ahead of the start of the home-and-away season in just under a fortnight.

But while it was the Crows that handed the Blues their third loss in four pre-season games this year, Kreuzer was the standout player on the field with a superb display in the ruck.

The 2007 No.1 draft pick, who has played 43 games in just two seasons, continues to show just why he is regarded as one of the most exciting young big men in the game.

With the Blues' forward line facing a transition year after the loss of seven-time leading goalkicker Brendan Fevola to Brisbane, there are many Carlton fans who see Kreuzer as the answer to the club's search for a new spearhead.

However, after watching the 20-year-old put in an awesome display in the ruck against the Crows, Ratten was adamant Kreuzer would remain on the ball in season 2010.

"That is the debate whether we play him forward or in the ruck and certainly Matty Lappin, as our forward line coach, wants him to play forward while our midfield coaches Mark Riley and Robert Harvey, are fighting like crazy to keep him in the midfield," Ratten said post-match.

"But his performance today shows why he will play in the ruck."

Ratten described Kreuzer as being in 'fantastic nick' ahead of the season and said his athleticism for a player of 200cm would hold him in great stead this year.

"It's his follow-up work as well which is so impressive," Ratten said.

"We didn't do that well in hit-outs (against the Crows) but at ground level he (Kreuzer) contributed enormously."

While the Blues could only manage 11 goals against the Crows with Irishman Setanta O'hAilpin booting three in his new role as Carlton spearhead, Ratten was encouraged by the fact his team had 47 forward entries to just 44 for Adelaide and believes the Blues will kick plenty of goals if they continue to get the ball inside their forward 50 that often during the season proper.

"It would have been nice to kick 16.11 and not 11.16 so we need to get our accuracy up and some of our kicks inside 50 weren't great either so the delivery to our forwards made it pretty tough," he said.

"But there are some pluses there (as far as our forward line is concerned) because Eddie Betts' form looks good and Setanta O'hAilpin looks like he could kick multiple goals at any stage."