A furious Carlton coach Brett Ratten has accused his players of "pulling out" and warned them that their jobs are on the line for failing to go in hard enough during Saturday's humiliating 48-point loss to ladder leaders Collingwood.

The margin flattered the Blues who were out of the contest from mid-way through the second quarter and dead and buried when they trailed by 73 points early in the final term.

A five-goal burst in junk time in the last quarter added some respectability to the scoreline but failed to redeem the Blues in the eyes of their coach.

Ratten locked himself away with his players for more than 30 minutes after the final siren and warned them that not only are their places in the line-up at stake but potentially careers as well.

"It's like any workplace environment, you have choices and if you keep taking the wrong ones you lose your job or you get put out and that's going to happen," Ratten said.

"I think firstly it will be about position in the team but ... we'll need to have a look at all positions."

Ratten said was embarrassed by the performance and zeroed-in on the Magpies' domination of the contested ball, which they won 151 to 117, as the key indicator.

"When you look at contested ball, they had 12 players with nine-plus, and I think we had two players with nine, and one was our ruckman," Ratten said.

"To see players pull out, not go in and miss tackles, it's damning on our brand."

"They didn't go hard enough."

"It might have been a pluck or a grab or an arm but, to me, that's pulling out."

"You get a choice to put your body on the line and I don't think today some of our blokes did when they had to."

Ratten said his team's failure to win the contested ball had been a common theme in losses over the past six weeks to North Melbourne, Fremantle, Sydney and the Western Bulldogs.

He blames a poor mindset for the poor work rate and said his players would be judged from here on in by their actions.

"When the contest was up for grabs, we were found wanting," he said.

"To not roll your sleeves up and fight, not just for your own personal space but your club against the arch enemy on a big stage, to deliver that was very embarrassing."

Ratten said skipper Chris Judd was taken from the field as a precautionary measure mid-way through the final quarter after taking a knock to a shoulder.

"We couldn't win the game so we took a conservative approach," Ratten said.

"The doc said it's bruised so we just iced it up and looked after him."

Ratten said if not for the six-day break ahead of next Friday night's assignment against the rejuvenated Bombers he would have been tempted to give his players an old-fashioned thrashing on the training track.

"Friday night, the whole footy world can sit there and critique the individuals and the team and so will we be," he said.