Carlton director Chris Judd has told Triple M's Hot Breakfast the decision to relieve Brendon Bolton of his duties wasn't solely based on the Blues' loss to Essendon.

Judd said the board had begun speaking about the possibility of moving Bolton on a few weeks ago, with the loss to the Bombers seemingly the last straw.

“It’s been a really tough week, tough to state the bleeding obvious for Brendon Bolton,” Judd said.

“He’s someone who did give his absolute all for the footy club, made some long term decisions that were hard for his role personally and then ended up falling all on his sword after the board decided to end his contract, so a really tough week for him.

“[It was] a difficult decision for the board, one we’d started working on a couple of weeks ago, on what if and scenarios for different things that may arise.

“It was a tough decision but at the end of the day the results largely made it for us.”

Bolton won just four of his final 43 games at the Blues.