Carlton small forward Eddie Betts kicked five goals as the Blues continued Brisbane's miserable run with an 18.12 (120) to 9.11 (65) AFL victory at Etihad Stadium on Thursday night.

Four of Betts' majors came in the second half, while fellow indigenous small forwards Jeff Garlett and Chris Yarran kicked two goals each as the Blues overcame a sluggish start to storm home by 55 points.

It was their first win in almost a month, after losses to North Melbourne and Fremantle in the lead-up to last weekend's mid-season break, shoring up their top eight berth by lifting them to an 8-6 record.

It compounded the pain of the Lions - the team who knocked Carlton out of the finals in a thriller at the Gabba last September, but have now lost nine of their past 10 matches.

If a Lions' season that started brightly with four straight wins is not already dead, it could be soon, with clashes with St Kilda, Hawthorn and Geelong in the next three rounds.

The Lions were clearly hurt by the absence of injured key forwards Jonathan Brown and Brendan Fevola, managing just 4.6 after quarter-time.

The injury absences of several defenders, most notably small backman Jed Adcock, was also sorely felt given the damage caused by the Blues' small forwards.

Brisbane gave themselves some chance of an upset win, outscoring Carlton 4.5 to 2.4 in the first quarter as they capitalised on a lacklustre Blues start and some loose defending to post nine scoring shots from 11 forward entries.

But the Blues lifted their intensity enormously after the break, capitalising on their midfield strength and pace in attack to surge ahead.

They outscored Brisbane 6.5 to 1.2 in the second term to take a 20-point lead.

Two Lions goals early in the second half cut the gap to seven points, but a running goal to Betts 18 minutes into the term started a run of four Blues' goals in 10 minutes late in the term as the Lions wilted badly.

Midfielders Chris Judd, Marc Murphy, Andrew Carrazzo and Kade Simpson were good for Carlton, while ruckman Matthew Leuenberger was Brisbane's best, capitalising on the absence of injured Blues big man Matthew Kreuzer.

Carlton coach Brett Ratten lavished praise on Betts, who now has 33 goals for the season.

"He's playing outstanding football Eddie, he was best on ground for mine, he's in All Australian form," he said.

"Just what he does for Jeff (Garlett) and Chris (Yarran) as well, I suppose he gives the big forwards confidence to know they don't have to mark every ball that comes in. They've got Eddie and the like underneath them."

Brisbane coach Michael Voss admitted his team was badly down on confidence and went missing under pressure.

"It seems we haven't got a lot of resistance at the moment, I must say," Voss said.

"We're quite brittle when it comes to being able to finish off games at the moment, so it certainly doesn't seem to be a thick band of (resistance) to be able to rely on, when it cracks it seems to shatter pretty quick.

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