Blues to learn from Roos lesson: Bolton

Brendon Bolton saw some of the sprouts of improvement he's looking for in Carlton's big loss to North Melbourne, but there's no doubt the 67-point thumping brought a rude halt to a month of forward momentum.

The Blues' four-game winning streak was suddenly ended by the ladder leaders, who established a 19-point quarter-time lead and extended it at every break.

Despite the reality check, Bolton's rebuild at Carlton appears well and truly on the right track with four wins in nine rounds.

But the first-year coach reminded fans of the size of the job ahead of the Blues.

"We're probably going to have some ups and lows in the next few years, we know that, but we'll go away and analyse that game really strongly, like we did earlier in the season when we lost games, and learn from it," Bolton said.

"We said it's going to be a journey with ups and downs. We've had a few little ups. Here's another little twist and turn and we've got to learn from it and grow from it."