It was the most perplexing image of the weekend. It made the message of youth and education and patience sound thin. Loading There seemed to be something missing in the discussion of why he was not playing. It seemed incongruous that a team that had for some time now been playing for the future not for today should not include him in their team. There must be some other rationale. The reasoning from Carlton was simple. Levi Casboult had to be dropped so they needed a second ruck to relieve Matthew Kreuzer. They were reluctant to throw the callow McKay into the ruck and see him belted around. McKay has been far from compelling in his form this year but the coaches were more concerned about not using him in the ruck.

The messaging from Carlton since the weekend, too, is that after an interrupted pre-season McKay has struggled all year for fitness and would benefit from a solid month in the VFL. That's odd given he has played six games and booted 12 goals. The problem at the weekend was that Andrew Phillips, who was chosen ahead of McKay, then got injured early in the game and so they had no second forward and ruck anyway. That meant Sam Rowe was pulled out of the already threadbare back line and sent forward and into the ruck. That then meant they had problems across three lines – Rowe is a defender not forward or ruck and he was asked to do the two jobs he's not suited to and pulled out of the one area of the ground where the team was already wafer thin. High hopes: Brendon Bolton welcomes Harry McKay to the Blues with pick 10 in the 2015 draft. Credit:David Mariuz Now that argument for a string of VFL games becomes complicated because Phillips is out for the rest of the year with a hamstring tendon injury. How do the Blues go back to Casboult when he has been dropped because of poor form after just 12 goals in nine games this season and a goalless, four-disposal game the week before and say you are back in? The VFL team had a bye last week so he had no opportunity to prove his form had turned around. They couldn't seriously go back to Casboult. Could they?

McKay, who flew to Brisbane as the emergency, had no opportunity to build his match fitness if that was genuinely the concern. Loading So if the argument held still on not wanting McKay to be exposed or exploited as a second ruck, what do they do now? One argument is to play a faux second ruck. They could use a non-ruckman second ruck as Richmond do with Shaun Grigg and save McKay to just play as a forward. One of the frustrations for Carlton fans – and there are many when you face another wooden spoon, so let's isolate it to just this one for now – is that they if they are investing time in players this year, if they are searching for green shoots, then they would rather see one of those green shoots out there on the field not sitting in the stands.

Carlton's hand might now be forced.