Carlton delighted in dishing out a rare AFL thrashing in comfortably accounting for Port Adelaide by 39 points at Telstra Dome, which sent the Power into further freefall.

Amid the leanest times of Carlton's rich history there was no way the Blues were going to miss out on a chance of inflicting a big defeat, and slammed through nine goals in an electrifying third quarter.

Up by almost 10 goals at the final change, the Blues could not quite go right on with the job, but the 22.9 (141) to 14.18 (102) win was Carlton's second-biggest over any opponent since 2001, the last time the club made the finals.

It was also Carlton's first win over Port since the same season.

Jarrad Waite booted four goals for Carlton, including three in a livewire first quarter, Ryan Houlihan and Brad Fisher three each and a group of young Blues played big jobs.

While a comfortable win made a pleasant night's viewing for Blues fans, the result continued Port's fall from grace.

The Power topped the ladder after round seven but after four successive defeats and a raft of key players unable to make much of an impact, Port could find themselves out of the eight by the midway point.

Skipper Warren Tredrea was again quiet, Brett Ebert went goalless, Chad Cornes failed to have an impact when the match was alive and Shaun Burgoyne faded after a good start.

Carlton had no such problems.

Their group of tall forwards troubled Port throughout, young guns Andrew Walker and Bryce Gibbs were excellent rebounding out of defence, and Marc Murphy, Jordan Russell and Andrew Carrazzo again defied their inexperience to star in the midfield.

Second-gamer Justin Westhoff was Port's only real target in attack with Tredrea still out of sorts and Gibbs shutting out Ebert, and booted four goals from limited chances.

Port's other best were the hard-running Steven Salopek and David Rodan, who booted two goals.

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