Carlton coach Brett Ratten could barely contain his displeasure on Saturday night at the defensive tactics employed by Hawthorn counterpart Alastair Clarkson which helped deny spearhead Brendan Fevola from reaching his ton.

After Lance Franklin kicked his 100th goal in the first quarter, Fevola fell agonisingly close to joining him in three figures after kicking seven goals to finish on 99 for the season.

Had Fevola, who kicked all seven of his goals after half-time, booted an eighth it would have been the first time two players reached triple figures in the same game, a fact not lost on Ratten at his post-match press conference.

Asked whether he was disappointed with Hawthorn's tactic of pushing extra numbers in defence to clog up space for Fevola to lead into, Ratten said: "They were only 70 points up."

Asked if would have done the same if the roles were reversed, Ratten chose to bite his lip.

"I won't answer that," he said.

Clarkson said in his press conference Fevola - who also kicked three behinds, including one which hit the post - 'had his chances over the course of the game'.

"It's a tough, brutal game and he was unable to get there at the end."

Ratten said he was a romantic of the game who would have loved to see history created on Saturday night.

"If he would have kicked it, this game would have been replayed regardless of the score between the two teams," said Ratten, whose team lost by 78 points.

"I don't think you'll ever see two full-forwards kick 100 goals on the same day in the same round. It would have just been fantastic fairytale, romance."

"You would have looked in 100 years time and said 'they have done it and they did do it in the same round'."

"For the AFL to get the two teams to play off, in the last round and kick the 100 goals, the stars are aligned. It nearly happened, it's just a shame it didn't."

Franklin said it would have been great for Fevola to kick 100 goal as well.

"With the two of us, it would have made history," he said.

"To land on 99 and not kick 100, you'd be a little bit disappointed I think."

Despite being at times frustrated with Fevola this season and his team's unhealthy reliance on him to kick goals, Ratten had no qualms in instructing his players to do everything they could to get their spearhead over the