Carlton coach Brett Ratten has shrugged off consecutive AFL pre-season cup losses, conceding his players simply weren’t switched on during Sunday’s defeats in Adelaide.

The Blues were pipped by Port Adelaide by six points and then fell short of Adelaide by nine points at AAMI Stadium.

The Crows then gave new coach Brenton Sanderson a perfect pre-season start with a one-point victory over home town rivals Port.

Carlton have put on record their premiership aspirations for this season, but were sluggish in both outings – particularly in their earliest match against Port.

The Power won 0.6.10 (46) to 1.5.1 (40) but Ratten said the close margin flattered the Blues.

“We weren’t switched on at all to come and play against an opposition team,” he said.

“It was like we were coming out for a training session … it looked like we were out there in the pre-game warm up.”

The Crows downed Carlton in the second match, 1.5.4 (43) to 0.5.4 (34), with Adelaide’s key forward Taylor Walker proving the difference.

Walker kicked a nine-point super goal and a regulation major as Sanderson banked a win in his first match as Adelaide’s head coach.

But Ratten found enough to be enthused about against the Crows, particularly the roaming display of ruckman Matthew Kreuzer.

“It’s good to see how he’s moving around the ground now,” Ratten said of Kreuzer, who missed a large chunk of last season with a knee injury.

“He’s moving back to his best agility-wise.”

The Crows scraped through against Port for successive wins in the final match, prevailing 0.2.6 (18) to 0.2.5 (17).

Adelaide veteran Brent Reilly kicked the winning point with a 50m set shot with just 40 seconds remaining.

The Adelaide round robin, attended by 12,532 spectators, was notable for the use, and non-use, of video technology.

In Adelaide’s win over Port, a goal umpire initially awarded the Power a point for a long shot which scraped a point post.

The video review being trialled in the cup competition promptly corrected the decision to out of bounds on the full.

But in Port’s win over Carlton, umpires inexplicably failed to use the technology after Blue utility Andrew Collins soccered a goal.

Port players protested, with justification, that the ball was touched before it crossed the goal line – but umpires declined to review the original decision.