IT WAS a case of 'no wins, no worries' for Carlton coach Brett Ratten on Thursday night after the Blues put a winless pre-season behind them with a spirited 44-point defeat of Richmond at the MCG.

Questions were asked of Carlton after a winless NAB Cup campaign, and the Tigers posed some stern questions of their own as they slashed a 32-point deficit to just six points early in the final term.

But when the dust settled, the Blues had all the answers.

"This is what we play for - the four points," Ratten replied when asked if those pre-season losses had sent doubts creeping into his mind.

"Especially being the first game in Melbourne and against [our] arch-rivals … what a great [way] to kick the season off.

"I thought our last two weeks of training was outstanding, and we had real confidence that we were going to do the job.

"It was great to see that."

Carlton faced a full-strength Richmond side without Michael Jamison, Andrew Walker, Rob Warnock and Nick Duigan, but barely missed a beat in the second and final terms when the win was set up. 

Players like Andrew Carrazzo, who worked well in opposition to Trent Cotchin and Dustin Martin while gathering 31 possessions, Marc Murphy (32 disposals) and Chris Judd (26) helped the team live up to the lofty goals set by Ratten before the season had started.

"When you have big expectations, it's always great to start the season well," Ratten said.

"As a team, we want to have the ambition to try and make the top four. We want to lift the bar from last year, so it was really important for us to really set the scene early this year and get off to a good start."

Matthew Kreuzer and Shaun Hampson were also key cogs in that machine with Ratten rating Hampson's game the best, and most-balanced, he had seen from the athletic big man.

Apart from one towering mark, Jarrad Waite was unable to impact the contest to a large degree, and had his night soured early when he was reported for rough conduct on Dylan Grimes in the first quarter.

Ratten didn’t comment on Waite’s report, saying he hadn’t seen the incident.