Since Ratten took the reins at Carlton he has had to scrap for every precious victory, but in 2009 the coach is demanding more of his charges despite two wins from two starts to kick off the season.
"I suppose the first feeling was we could have played a little bit better through patches of the game, and we need to improve some of that," Ratten said after the Blues held off a second-half challenge from the Brisbane Lions to prevail at Docklands.
"But when you look at it we haven't beaten Brisbane [here] in a home and away game, so that was a great effort.
"I suppose we've been into trying to eradicate records that haven't been that flattering towards our club and we're starting to build that and get some positives in that regard."
Ratten was delighted with the way his side reacted when challenged by the Lions who slashed Carlton's lead from 48 points in the third quarter to just 12 early in the final term.
"The back end of the game [was a positive] when rotations were down a bit and players had to stand up and play a bit of extra game time," he said.
The interchange rotations were restricted after half time when a shoulder injury to Michael Jamison sidelined the full-back.
While admitting Jamison's loss was difficult to cover, Ratten wasn't about to speculate on the severity of the injury, which occurred after a clash with Lions' skipper Jonathan Brown.
"I don't have a doctor's degree," he said.
"We'll just have to see on Monday [when he will have scans] what the full outcome is of that. He just hurt that shoulder and I suppose there is a bit of a risk with that because he had some surgery last year so it was a bit of a policy to look after him and not [risk] taking another hit on it.
"He copped one against Richmond early in the game, so we just wanted to make sure that we don't make it a full big injury or anything that could be there for a long time."
Ratten also lamented a shoulder injury suffered by Andrew Walker in a VFL practice match earlier in the day. Like Jamison, Walker has a history of shoulder issues, but will also have to wait until Monday to get the results of scans.
