WITH a tough game against another traditional rival looming, Carlton coach Brett Ratten has challenged his players to replicate the effort that saw them crush Essendon last week.

The Blues bounced back from an intense week of scrutiny in emphatic fashion against the Bombers last Friday, but must now overcome Richmond as they look to build momentum heading into the finals.

Not that Ratten is looking that far into the future.

“Sometimes in our industry we can look too far ahead,” he said from Visy Park on Tuesday. “For us last week to really look at the opposition, concentrate and really simplify things that we had to do behind the scenes was really critical.

“It was just a real reminder for us, regardless of the result, that it’s the way you go about it [that counts].

“Not to look at the win-loss ratio, but to look at the process from Monday to Friday to get it right on the Saturday.”

Despite a dwindling injury list and outstanding efforts by Sam Jacobs, Andrew Walker and Brad Fisher in the VFL at the weekend, Ratten forecast no changes to the side to take on the Tigers on Saturday.

It’s a markedly different scenario to the one that presented just a week ago before the pressure-relieving win that Ratten rates as one of the most satisfying as a coach.

He put a lot on the line when he publicly attacked his players after the disappointing loss to Collingwood, but the risky move will have paid off in spades if the Blues maintain the same ferocity at the contest for the remainder of the season.

“When you get that pressure and focus on your football club we made it fairly simple and the message was pretty clear for the players,” Ratten said of the week leading up to the Essendon game. “There was no greyness in it and I thought the response of the group - win, lose or draw - I thought they came out and had a mighty go and they got the reward.

“It was a slight risk, but I think that’s what you try and challenge the group with week in, week out.

“[The contested ball] was an area we thought we were chipping away at by talking about it, but then it was sort of like ‘less words, more action’. We got the response that was required which was what we were after.”

With just three weeks remaining before a finals assault each game becomes increasingly important for those players who find themselves currently outside the 22.

The ruck situation has been of particular interest since the loss of clear first-choice ruckman Matthew Kreuzer for the season.

Jacobs appeared to be in the box seat to assume the lead role early on, but has been unable to unseat either Robbie Warnock or Shaun Hampson since he dropped out prior to round 17.

“Sammy had, I think, 30 hitouts, 30 possessions and kicked 1.5 playing in the ruck [for the Bullants at the weekend] which is a pretty good game," Ratten said.

“The week before they got beaten fairly easily by Sandringham and he had 66 hitouts. It is a tough one, but I thought Hampson’s game was really improved [last Friday]. He was marking the ball a lot more than he has been and his follow-up work was really good as well.

“Warnock played a great game for us and he’s backed it up now with two in a row, so the likelihood is no change, but we’ll see.”