The Blues beat the Kangaroos – who played finals last year – convincingly in the round one match, which left Ratten pleased with the progress his young group has made.
"We had a real good purple patch through the third quarter and I thought our intensity in the first half was good," he said, after the game.
"There's a bit of anxiousness as a coach and as a playing group when you're playing an opposition for the first time and it's a trial game and you think, where are we at?
"We're still finding our way but I thought it was a really good step in the right direction."
Ratten said it was disappointing the club's No.1 draft pick (selection six overall) Chris Yarran rolled his ankle just before quarter-time.
"I would have liked to have seen a bit more of him," he said.
"I would have liked to have had Eddie [Betts], Chris and Jeff [Garlett] up there to see what they could do.
"[The game] was good for the younger players. You've got [Mitch] Robinson in there and I thought Sam Jacobs did a good job in the ruck and Aaron Joseph is learning.
"The other two that have been around but playing for the first time at your club in [Greg] Bentley and [Chris] Johnson, they contributed as well."
Brendan Fevola starred in the match with five goals and one super goal, as he constantly outmuscled Kangaroos defender Josh Gibson.
Ratten said Fevola had added size to his frame over the pre-season but expected the spearhead to drop at least a kilo over the next few weeks.
"He'd be the first to admit he's started to do shoulder weights," he said.
"He's got into the gym and found them – it's taken him awhile.
"He's worked extremely hard over the pre-season and he wanted to put a bit more weight on, and he's done that.
"As we saw tonight, when he straight-line leads, he's pretty hard to stop."
Ratten said it was pleasing to see Chris Judd regain his movement after a year hampered by groin problems, but labelled the "finer points" of the skipper's 19-possession game as "rusty".
"Early on, he's probably a bit rusty in some of the takes but that's the beauty having Chris around; we can put him to other positions and let the kids grow under him," he said.
"That will help him enormously. He's got [his stride] back and hasn't missed a beat through pre-season this year, so he's in good shape.
"He'd probably sit three rows back and still find 20 possessions."
