Carlton's fighting victory over Richmond is a step towards building the bond essential to winning tight AFL finals, coach Brett Ratten believes.

Painful narrow losses in elimination finals over the past two seasons have reflected the Blues' poor recent record in close games.

With Ratten needing to go a step further this year, he said coming back from 14 points down at the last change to beat Richmond on Thursday night was the right sort of preparation.

"It's good to be tested. Our group needs to be challenged and fight and dig and grow as a team mentally," he said.

"I think these challenges that we face are very good for us in 2011.

"When you go through these they also build character and I think the players create a lot of trust with their mate to get the job done.

"You've seen teams like Geelong do it over time.

"It's hard to erode - when you come to big times in games, or big occasions, you lift for your teammates."

While Carlton took a step, Richmond coach Damien Hardwick was left facing a familiar problem, too little help for star forward Jack Riewoldt.

The reigning Coleman Medallist, who kicked a third of his side's goals last season, booted six of 13 on Thursday night.

While Riewoldt showed outstanding judgment in marking contests and looks set for another big year, Hardwick said the Tigers must find support acts.

"It was the same sort of problem, we need to find more avenues to goal," the coach said.

"It's going to be a common theme for us until we get guys that stand up.

"We've got guys coming back from injury (Ben Griffiths and Jayden Post) that we think can fulfil that role, but we've just got to be patient."

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