With two weeks to go until the Western Bulldogs kick off their 2017 premiership season against Collingwood, coach Luke Beveridge says there's plenty of water to flow under the bridge before a decision is made on who will shoulder the ruck duties in the opening round encounter.

With Jordan Roughead sidelined by a hamstring injury and Tom Campbell recovering from an ankle strain, Beveridge's choices will be somewhat limited but he won't be rushed into making a decision, despite the impressive work Tom Boyd did on the ball against Gold Coast in Thursday night's JLT Community Series match.

"I can't tell you. It's too far out. We liked Tommy's [Tom Boyd's] game. He like his teammates probably didn't have the best of it early but he really fought back hard and gave us that contest around the ball, so that was good. Tommy definitely has to play in the ruck for us. Travis [Cloke] pinch hit."

Tim English, who did well at ground level in last week's match against Brisbane, was named to play against the Suns but did not take the field. While he remains a work in progress, Beveridge did not rule him out as a possibility for round 1.

"We've got to work out whether or not Tim is ready to play yet. He does really well around the ground and his ruck work's okay but he's playing against some boys who are fair bit heavier than him, so we've got to work that out. It's still a bit of an unknown."

Asked whether the Bulldogs would go into the match against Collingwood with the same ruck structure as was used against Gold Coast, Beveridge said it was a possibility but would give nothing else away.

"We might." 

The Bulldogs will take on Collingwood in Round 1 at the MCG.