Carlton coach Brett Ratten was rapt to see new faces contributing to his side's backs-to-the-wall victory over the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night.

The Blues were down by 25 points 19 minutes into the second quarter, but an 11-goal-to-four second half sealed the three-goal victory.

Ratten said the fact they were missing 10 first-choice players, including captain Chris Judd, their three ruckman and Mitch Robinson, and still won was the most pleasing part of the Round 17 win.

"Sometimes when it's not going quite right with your list or some injuries, you get to find out about a few players and Collo (Andrew Collins) today was really good, (Brock) McLean I thought was very good," Ratten said.

"Sometimes through adversity you find opportunities and people create or keep their career going or elevate their position at the football club because of what they did."

Carlton took the chance to blood three debutants, each of them elevated rookies - Levi Casboult, Tom Bell and Frazer Dale.

Casboult battled manfully in the ruck, Bell showed he was not scared of winning his own hard ball and Dale came on as the substitute in the last quarter to contribute a goal after the final siren.

"They're things that come out of the game that make you go, 'okay we've got some kids on our list who can really play and we'll put a lot more time into them'," Ratten said.

"At the end of the day we came here to win four points and that's what we did. Those kids playing, they'll be better next week, they'll learn from the experience and they'll come out of it a lot better."

Meanwhile, Ratten endorsed Marc Murphy as Carlton's next captain after the midfielder helped himself to 21 disposals and five tackles despite copping a knock to his troublesome shoulder.

Murphy, acting captain in place of the suspended Judd, was restricted to just 13 possessions in the first three quarters but broke free from tagger Liam Picken to gather eight touches in the final term and help his side home.

"At this rate, one from one, we might keep him tossing the coin," Ratten joked.

"I think he'll be a future captain."

The Blues remain in the hunt for a finals berth and face another must-win clash next Saturday night against fellow top-eight aspirants Richmond.

"It's going to be challenging. Whatever happens in the next six weeks, we'll be a lot better as a football club to go through these experiences," Ratten said.