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CARLTON fans were delighted by the hefty final margin, but coach Brett Ratten was more impressed by the across-the-board effort he received from his players in Sunday's 51-point win over Collingwood.
The Blues' train has carried too many passengers in recent weeks according to the coach who was relieved to put a frustrating fortnight of narrow defeats behind him.
"I would have come here today and [taken] a win by a point," Ratten said.
"Some of our losses have been so slim [that] we just needed the win.
"It was an eight-point game and we've seen Collingwood with their backs against the wall before and the way they go about it – they're stiff opposition to knock off and today was no different. We came with the attitude of 'let's just get the four points'.
"I thought, to a man we had a lot of contributors and that's been a big part of our game that's probably fluctuated a fair bit.
"We've sort of had 10 or 12 players contributing and blokes we've had to carry through games. I thought today everyone played their part."
On the face of it Brendan Fevola's goalless return would be cause for concern for many, but Ratten felt quite the opposite.
"Sixteen goals without Fev – I think it [helps] the belief of the players around him that he doesn't have to dominate games for us to win," he said.
"I think we kicked 15 goals against Hawthorn and he kicked eight and today we kick 16 and he doesn't kick any.
"Sometimes finding our way to a victory can change in the personnel that we use and it was just great that we could do it a little bit differently.
"I thought the way he went about rolling up and assisting and creating space for others was fantastic. He had great body language, he was up and I think we saw a great reward for a team performance across the board and he was one that played his part on the day."
The Pies successfully slowed the tempo of the contest in the second quarter in an attempt to claw their way back into the match, but Ratten was pleased with how his players, led superbly by Chris Judd, responded.
"They really got their hands on the footy around [the stoppages] and we sort of chased a little bit … but our pressure was really good," he said.
"We forced Collingwood's inside 50 kicks to be high balls and not clean and crisp. I thought we did that really well."
Simon Wiggins was a late withdrawal with hamstring tightness, but is a good chance to resume next week against Adelaide.
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