A dominant second term propelled Carlton to a crucial 41-point AFL win over West Coast at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.

The Eagles could only manage two behinds in the second quarter and trailed by 41 points at half-time before the Blues went on to win 16.15 (111) to 10.10 (70).

Blues full-forward Brendan Fevola kicked six goals, while captain Chris Judd was best afield.

West Coast key forward Mark LeCras returned from a week off with a virus to star with six goals, including a freakish shot in the third quarter.

Veteran Eagles midfielder Daniel Kerr is certain to be charged for his forearm jolt to the midriff of Carlton opponent Marc Murphy before the opening bounce.

The contact was caught on camera and Murphy was winded for several minutes.

Carlton were far from their best but they desperately needed to win after last week's disastrous loss to Adelaide.

LeCras lit up the game with his outstanding third quarter, when he kicked all of West Coast's four goals.

His last goal of the third term will be a strong candidate for goal of the year.

LeCras had dropped a mark and opponent Paul Bower was pressuring him on the boundary when the Eagles forward kicked the ball over his shoulder on an acute angle.

The ball looped through for an improbable goal.

LeCras's purple patch meant the Eagles reduced the deficit to 29 point at the final change, but they were never able to put enough pressure on Carlton.

They paid for their barren second term and did not kick a goal from the end of the first term until six minutes into the second half.

The game started with a free kick to West Coast after plenty of push and shove around the centre square, including Kerr's forearm strike on Murphy.

After the fiery opening, there were several big hits in the first term as the two teams tried to gain the advantage.

Eagles forward Adam Hunter, playing his 150th game, kicked a goal on the quarter-time siren to reduce the margin to 11 points.

But Carlton then shut out West Coast with their dominant second quarter.

The Blues had lost five of their previous seven games and started this weekend a game outside the top eight.

They are also without utility Jarrad Waite, one of their most important players, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in last weekend's disastrous loss to Adelaide.

Judd was again brilliant with 29 disposals, while the Blues defence shut down West Coast in the second term across half-forward.

Carlton should have been much further ahead at half-time, but kicked 4.8 in the second quarter.

Carlton play Brisbane away next weekend and then have unbeaten St Kilda ahead of the mid-season break.

Blues coach Brett Ratten said after the early-season talk about returning to the top eight, it was important that the team simply concentrate on winning consistently.

"I suppose there was a lot of talk about finals early and things like that - probably from my point of view, it's more just let's win the games of footy," he said.

"We've got two really big games against quality opposition who are playing really good football."

He speculated that the fiery opening might have been partly because the Eagles were playing against Judd, their former captain.

Ratten was pleased the Blues withstood the early physical pressure and were ahead at quarter-time.

"Maybe we're perceived to be a little bit on the not really hard at it and we're not that physical," he said.

"So maybe we have to bring that to the table, too.

"Early on I did see our blokes fight the fight or get on the front foot a bit more ... we didn't back down from it.

Ratten said it was important for Fevola's confidence that he had a good game, after only managing 1.5 in the Adelaide loss.

While the Blues remain in the finals hunt, the Eagles only have three wins from 10 games.

"I don't know what the equations are, but on current form, finals aren't really a priority for us," West Coast coach John Worsfold said.

"Consistency of effort and improving our skills and decision making are what we'll be really working hard on throughout this season."

Worsfold was philosophical, saying the Eagles paid for too many skills errors, but had never given up.

He praised Masten's superb performance and added there was no sense of what the Eagles had lost when he saw Judd playing for Carlton.

"That's life - we won a premiership and had massive input from Daniel Chick and Tyson Stenglein, who moved back (to the Eagles)," he said.

"If there was a rule that meant blokes can't move back home, we might not have won that premiership.

"We're very, very confident the payoff (from the Judd trade) will be very good for us - (Josh) Kennedy and (Chris) Masten will be premiership players at West Coast."

Kerr was not reported during the game but emergency umpire Shane Stewart booked Carlton youngster Mitch Robinson for rough conduct against Adam Selwood.

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