Richmond coach Danny Frawley expects some of his players will ask to be dropped after the Tigers AFL finals chances took a hammer blow with a fourth successive defeat in a heart-stopper against lowly Carlton.

The 14.9 (93) to 12.14 (86) defeat meant the Tigers had gone from 6-2 to 6-6 going into the mid-season break next weekend. With trips to Brisbane and Fremantle to come in their next six games, they were in desperate need of a form turnaround.

The Tigers came from 19 points down early in the final quarter to hit the lead at the 23-minute mark when David Rodan goaled, only for Carlton youngster Brad Fisher to get a free-kick in the goal square when dragged down by his neck in a marking contest with two minutes to play.

Having missed an easy shot a couple of minutes earlier, he looked understandably nervous as he lined up but goaled to put the Blues up by two points.

A long shot by Matthew Rogers sailed wide to blow the Tigers' last chance. Carlton wound down the clock to protect a one-point lead before Ryan Houlihan marked and goaled after the final siren.

"A couple of blokes, hopefully I won't have to ask them to play in the VFL because they will ask me - it's about being honest," Frawley said.

"When we were going well, we were doing the team things and trying to bring teammates into the game and today we went into our shells.

"We have a tough run and we need to get back to be a good team and stop worrying about ourselves."

Carlton's one-point win over Richmond last year was one of only three in a miserable 2002, and inspired by Thursday night's team viewing of the Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston heavyweight title fight in 1964, the Blues repeated the dose in windswept conditions today.

Particularly encouraging was the return of ruckman Matthew Allan for his second game this season after more than three years of continual injury setbacks, as he rucked impressively and played a kick behind the ball cleverly.

Anthony Koutoufides took advantage of Richmond's surprising decision to not assign a marker on him to put in a best-on-ground performance while Justin Murphy came back from penance in the reserves with five goals against his old side.

"We said to our players after last week's effort in the second half against the Cats that we had to earn respect no matter what, and had to show a real fierce desire to compete," Carlton coach Denis Pagan said.

"It would have been terrible to go into two weeks off with four defeats on the trot, and they responded today."

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