Dogs expecting fired up Dockers

Sportal ©

Western Bulldogs assistant coach Leon Cameron is expecting a very tough match on Sunday as his team travels west to tackle Fremantle.

Fresh in everyone's memory is Fremantle's second half capitulation against Melbourne last round, but Cameron believes the Dockers form is not as bad as it first looks.

Prior to the Melbourne game, Fremantle went down to Geelong by one point and lost to Hawthorn by 17 and, along with the Bulldogs, those two teams are still undefeated this season.

Cameron said that apart from the Dockers poor performance against Richmond in round 4 - they lost by 64 points at home - their form this season has been relatively good.

"Make no bones about it, its going to be one of those real tough games," Cameron said.

"Apart from that Richmond game they have been in every other game and they probably should be at least 3-4 or 4-3. They have got some good points and they have got some points that we think we can expose but they will do exactly the same of us."

"We have to turn up to play like we did against the Eagles. And if we don't we will get beaten."

The Bulldogs currently enjoy one of the smallest injury lists in the league, with Scott West (1-2 weeks) and long-term casualty Shaun Higgins (10 weeks) the only two players not available for selection this week.

Williamstown, the side the Bulldogs are aligned with in the VFL, are in a rich vein of form too, with many young players pushing for selection in the senior side.

Along with untried youngsters Callan Ward and Guy O'Keefe, Wayde Skipper, Peter Street, Tom Williams, Farren Ray, Andrejs Everitt and Jarrod Harbrow have all been contributing well for Williamstown and Cameron said any of these players could easily slot straight into the Bulldogs side.

"There is probably five or six guys that could play pretty easily, we are in a great position," Cameron said.

"We have only got two injuries on our list at the moment and there is a lot of players playing really well down with our aligned side at Williamstown."

Cameron said that it would be tough to make any changes to the side that defeated Sydney last round, but he did indicate that the Bulldogs will consider taking an extra running player to Perth, to help with rotations on what is one of the biggest grounds in the AFL.