North Melbourne legend David King said after the Blues' loss to West Coast that they may need to trade one of their talls in order to take the next step.

The Blues fell to 4-6 on Sunday having suffered a 22-point loss to Eagles in Perth.

Carlton were competitive and led by as much as 19 points before being overrun.

But that is both highly unlikely and not helpful if the Blues are going to take the next step and play finals.

The Blues went to the draft in their rebuild and secured forwards Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow in the 2015 draft.

They then went out and got Mitch McGovern from Adelaide at the end of 2018, a move which seemed to be the final piece to Carlton's bookends.

The Blues would be daft to trade out either Curnow or McKay at this stage of their career, given both have just started to scratch the surface.

Curnow was poised to take the competition by storm in 2019 before being struck down by consistent knee injuries which now see him sidelined for the entire 2020 season.

Curnow's seven-goal best-on-ground performance against the Western Bulldogs last year showed just what he can do.

While McKay has struggled to get a consistent run at it but has shown glimpses of the player Carlton recruited, his height and speed are a lethal combination.

McGovern was banished from the senior side last year to work on his fitness and has been much better in 2020.

Both McKay and Curnow are yet to come close to peaking, so trading them out now would see years of development wasted and could backfire horribly.

Neither of McGovern, McKay or Curnow played on Sunday, therefore King's evaluation seems off the mark given Carlton are undoubtedly a better side with the three talls playing.

There's no doubt Carlton need midfield speed, but they are better served exploring free agency as opposed to trading out the future of the football club.