The countdown to the opening round of AFLW Season Seven is on.

In fact, it has been since June 13 - when the AFLW Bulldogs officially recommenced preseason training.

Head coach Nathan Burke said while the shorter break between seasons caused a couple of challenges, he’s excited to put their preseason work into effect.

“It’s two-fold – one, it’s exciting we get to play, but there’s also a little bit of trepidation of ‘have we done everything that we need to do?’ and ticked every box,” he said.

“(This preseason) been about advancing on what we’ve done the last couple of years. We want to put in a more strategic game-plan of how we want to play.

“To be able to do that, we needed to increase our skill level – across the board we’ve (done that), so we can use the ball in different ways we couldn’t last year.

“We’re still a fairly young group, so their football wisdom and IQ (is still) advancing. As that advances, we can do more things when we have the ball in hand.”

Preparations will ramp up this weekend, with a practice match against the Giants scheduled this Saturday morning at VU Whitten Oval.

“There’ll be patches there where we’ll show our best, and patches there where we might do some unusual things,” Burke said.

“A few players might find themselves in some unusual spots ahead of round one, but it’ll be fun.”

The Bulldogs will again meet the Giants in the opening round on Sunday 28 August at IKON Park.