TO BOO or not to boo: That was the question facing West Coast fans at Subiaco Oval last night.

For the Carlton fans among the 40,000 assembled to see Chris Judd's first match against his old team — the issue was whether to gloat or not to gloat.

Predictably, the Eagles fans did boo — a little when Judd won the toss and kicked to the western end of the ground, getting progressively louder as the quarter progressed and Judd's possession count rose quietly with it.

The Carlton cheer squad meanwhile went for a bit of a premature gloat. The banner that greeted Judd as he led the Blues onto the field said: "We could rub it in. But we are better than that."

Brave pre-match words from a club that has seen more of the spoon end than cup end of the premiership table in recent years but at least it set the scene for what was supposed to be an emotional, high-octane reunion between a champion player and a once-great team.

For half a game it never reached those heights — in fact it never even started the climb.

If you had left at half-time, the only conclusion you could have drawn is that — until he regains full fitness at least — Judd is not quite the player that led the Eagles to the 2006 premiership and the Eagles are certainly not the same club that he left.

Buffeted by Tyson Stenglein at the opening bounce and shadowed around the ground by Adam Selwood for most of the first half, Judd was efficient rather than devastating, gathering 11 touches.

But the Eagles were utterly terrible.

Less than eight months after they had bravely fought through extra time in a final against Collingwood without their three gun midfielders Judd, Daniel Kerr and Ben Cousins, the Eagles took the field without the classy triumvirate again and this time were insipid, undisciplined and bordering on incompetent.

By half-time, the Eagles had coughed up four 50-metre penalties and 10 goals and only kicking two themselves.

Forget to boo or not to boo, the question now was what or who to boo — Judd, the umpires who handed the Blues a string of holding frees around stoppages, or the Eagles' own players who were so bad for a half last night that it was simply impossible to recognise them from the lot who had fought so bravely against the Magpies in September last year.

Judd and Selwood were involved in a series of angry second-quarter tangles — about the only thing that got anyone's blood boiling.

Then came the rally. The reluctant participant in the Judd trade, Josh Kennedy, sparked the Eagles with two goals in a minute. Suddenly the Eagles were a football team again. West Coast kicked six of the eight goals in the quarter and had chances for more.

Judd's influence dwindled to a trickle. The Blues' error count threatened to become a flood as the Eagles edged back in the final term.

Here, among his young side, Judd appeared determined to impose his will. He made the stoppages his launching pad, waiting under Dean Cox and reading his taps, only this time as foe, not friend.

All the while, an exhausted Selwood shadowed him and an equally weary Judd appeared to lack the explosion that would set him free. That is until it was needed. With eight minutes to go, he read the fall of the ball inside Carlton's forward 50, gathered on the full, burst clear and handballed in the tackle to Bryce Gibbs, who kicked the sealer from point blank.

Afterwards, as he raced to applaud the Carlton cheer squad, he shook hands on the run with John Worsfold. Judd was gone, and so were the Eagles.