The Blues can lock up fifth place and a home final with a win against Adelaide on Saturday, but will have to do so without suspended trio Eddie Betts, Cameron Cloke and Jeff Garlett.
Chris Yarran, Dennis Armfield and one of Sam Jacobs or Shaun Hampson will come in as replacements and Ratten says there is a big carrot on offer for those who perform.
"I think the players that come in will be hell-bent on keeping their spot which could be the appetite that we need to get the four points," Ratten said from Visy Park on Wednesday.
"The players that come in, who get this little window of opportunity, will be pretty hungry knowing that one week later is a chance to play in finals which this club hasn't done for such a long time."
The Blues have not beaten the Crows since Brendan Fevola sent a set shot from 50m out on the boundary line through the middle after the siren at AAMI Stadium in round 11 of the 2004 season, but Ratten said he had not made that a focus during the week.
His side's last outing against Adelaide in round nine started in disastrous fashion when an attempt to fine tune the game plan resulted in a goalless first half and a 44-point loss, but Ratten doubted such a scenario would repeat itself at Docklands this Saturday.
"I think we tried something in the Collingwood game [the week before] to modify our game plan and maybe it got taken to the extreme against Adelaide," he said.
"From there on we've tinkered and gone more in the middle where we wanted it, so I think our form over the last few weeks has shown that balance is fairly good.
"Hopefully you won't see us kicking with a five-goal breeze with 18 men behind the ball."
There's still plenty of water to flow under the bridge before the final eight is settled, but the result of Saturday night's game between the Sydney Swans and the Brisbane Lions has the most bearing on Ratten's men should they stumble against the Crows.
A Lions' win will see the Blues off to Brisbane in the first week of the finals, but a loss would see Carlton host the Lions at the MCG. Ratten said his players would assemble to watch the game as a group, but wouldn't get drawn into possible finals scenarios.
"We'll go and have a bite to eat, sit down and have a chat about the campaign in front of us," he said.
"We'll wait and see what happens."
With the Blues about to embark upon their first finals campaign since 2001, Ratten said he would call on Chris Judd's finals experience and the skipper was likely to address the group next week.
