Western Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney says better ball movement is required if the team is to beat an undermanned Carlton side this Saturday night at Etihad Stadium.

The Dogs were wasteful with their disposal in their outing against the Hawks and will look to make amends this week against a smaller Blues outfit.

Watch Brendan McCartney's thoughts on Saturday night's clash against Carlton on the media player above.

“We’d like to move the ball a little more - there’s no doubt there is a strong link in how you move the ball that does help a lot of areas of the game and we’d like to do that,” McCartney said.

The Blues will be without a host of stars including skipper Chris Judd, Matthew Kreuzer, Kade Simpson, Andrew Walker but still have the midfield depth to cause some headaches in the contested ball stat — another area McCartney’s men will look to improve on this week. 

“We were pretty disappointed we got beaten around the ball [against Hawthorn]… it’s not all there is to the game but it’s a pretty good starting point and we would like to get back to that this week,” McCartney said.