"He certainly showed a bit of grit to be able to perform for the last three quarters," coach Rodney Eade told Bulldogs TV on Thursday night.

"He's been in good form, so I think we're certainly going to miss him."

Minson has been recalled after the Dogs faced the Demons with just one key ruckman - Ben Hudson - with Liam Jones and Barlow in supporting big man roles.

Assistant coach Paul Williams agreed on Thursday that the form of Carlton pair Robbie Warnock and Matthew Kreuzer meant the Dogs would consider adding height to their line up.

The four inclusions join Sam Reid, Lukas Markovic and Andrew Hooper on the extended bench, which will be trimmed on Friday afternoon. 

Eade said the side was starting to build confidence and belief after the past three weeks, and had been buoyed by the form of Shaun Higgins in a new role in defence, Hudson after three games in a row, Liam Picken in the midfield and youngsters Luke Dahlhaus and Jones.

"Last week was probably our most pleasing performance of the season. It's probably the closest we've had to a four-quarter effort all year," he said.

"It was pleasing that from the first bounce we were able to put enough pressure on the opposition to be able to cause some turnovers [while getting] some senior players really back into some good form.

"Now we've won three in a row and we're looking forward to making it four this week against Carlton, who are in excellent form.

"We're under no illusions as to how hard this game is going to be but we've had a great rivalry over the last few years against the Blues and we're certainly looking forward to the game."

Defender Lindsay Gilbee will become the third Bulldog this season behind Daniel Giansiracusa and Robert Murphy to reach 200 career games this weekend.

"We're getting a few there from the same draft [1999] coming through now and hopefully Ryan Hargrave will be able to at some stage add to his games tally and get close to 200 games as well," Eade said.