Under-siege coach Brett Ratten admits Carlton have carried players this AFL season and they are gutted after Saturday night’s pivotal loss to Gold Coast.

The shock result ended Carlton’s finals hopes and suddenly ramped up the speculation again about whether the club will sack Ratten at the end of the season.

According to the AFL website, Ratten wrote to Blues members on Monday, saying some of his players this season had lacked the necessary heart.

“Without doubt we have carried some blokes into games this season,” Ratten was quoted as saying.

“One minute they play well, the next it’s, ‘Oh well’.

“If you look at the Sydney and Hawthorn teams going around at the moment, they’re not carrying blokes.

“Each one of their players has given a good quarter at the very least whereas we’ve sometimes carried ours for four (quarters) and that’s not good enough.”

Ratten echoed the point made by club president Stephen Kernahan in a video interview earlier on Monday – that after showing improvement, the Blues had lost a lot of respect with the Suns loss.

“The mood amongst the players on the return flight to Melbourne was both quiet and sombre – few words were spoken,” Ratten said.

“In a year full of challenges we’d just let slip an opportunity to win back some competition respect.

“We ultimately let ourselves down … now we’re gutted.”