“The challenge for us is to keep developing and growing in confidence,” Ratten said from MC Labour Park on Wednesday.
“It’s good for our confidence winning two in a row and I think the belief is starting to come back, but Adelaide is a very structured team that plays very disciplined footy and they’ll be very tough to beat.
“I think they’re very well organised and, as you’ve seen, it doesn’t really matter who they bring in personnel wise - they just seem to play their part each week".
The Crows are currently in fifth position on the ladder despite having struggled with a lengthy injury list early in the season, with onballer Chris Knights (quad) and utility Kris Massie (hamstring) set to return for this week's clash.
The Blues have injury concerns of their own. Jordon Bannister will miss the next month with a hamstring injury, but Bruce Gibbs should be available after missing the win against Melbourne with a minor back injury.
Ratten will be looking for a more energetic Carlton side to take to the MCG on Saturday after being outscored five goals to three in the final term of last Sunday’s encounter.
“The boys were really flat,” he admitted.
“[But] we’d trained them really hard for two weeks which was a real ramp up of our training because now we’ve got a six-day column [against Adelaide] and then against West Coast and we travel as well.
“We had to be very mindful of where we could get the work into the boys and where could we drop off. Now we’ll have a real ‘lighten up’ week to really freshen [them] up and go. I could see the bounce back in their legs yesterday.”
The Blues’ coach was pleased with the progress of his settled back six in recent weeks, but said full-forward Brendan Fevola would likely have to make the most of fewer opportunities against the stingy Crows’ defence.
“I don’t know if they’ll do it as Melbourne did and just plonk a bloke five metres in front of him. I think as a team they’ll push back heavily,” he said.
