Carlton coach Brett Ratten made a spirited defence of key forward Jarrad Waite after he was reported in Saturday's 41-point AFL win over Melbourne.

Waite was booked in the second quarter for charging Matthew Bate, but was Carlton's best as they easily beat the Demons 15.11 (101) to 9.6 (60).

It was Waite's first game back after serving a two-game ban for a high bump on Port Adelaide's Jason Davenport.

Ratten was highly critical of Waite after the Davenport suspension, but he made a point of defending him for the contact with Bate.

When asked post-match about potential tribunal incidents, coaches usually play a dead bat and say they did not see the incident.

But Ratten is hopeful that Waite will not have a case to answer.

Bate was bravely running with the flight of the ball when Waite cannoned into him, but the Blues forward had jumped to take the mark and looked as though he tried to minimise contact.

"He left the ground, he was trying to make a contest and whether the ball dipped or whatever, he pulled out," Ratten said of Waite.

"You can see, his hands don't go there.

"When he's in the air, I don't know what more he can do - yeah, he was reported, it will be in the hands of (the match review panel).

"It was a tough one, the player coming back when you leave the ground, he was watching the ball."

Waite took 10 marks and kicked three goals, while Ryan Houlihan kicked four and Andrew Walker was outstanding in defence as the Blues won.

Carlton set up their seventh win by kicking the first five goals of the match, putting the Demons off their game from the start with strong tackling and plenty of physical play.

Melbourne rallied in the third term as the rain became extremely heavy, reducing the lead from 45 points to 19 at the last change.

Blues captain Chris Judd then broke clear of James McDonald's great tag early in the last term to stop Melbourne's surge.

"You give any team that sort of lead, you have to work incredibly hard just to get back in the game and work twice as hard to win it, so a really poor start," said Demons coach Dean Bailey.

"We gave away a few free kicks early in the first quarter, that certainly wasn't the start we were after.

"We really needed to kick a couple of early goals in the last quarter to regain the momentum we had in the third quarter, we were unable to do it."

The Blues appeared to target Melbourne small forward Aaron Davey, with Andrew Carrazzo applying a heavy tag, but Ratten and Bailey played down the attention he received.

"It's a physical game, that's the way it is," Bailey said.

"It was just one of those days, he was knocked around a bit."

The Demons lost James Frawley before the game with back spasms, while McDonald finished the match with hamstring soreness and Nathan Jones has a hamstring injury.

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