Beating St Kilda at the contest will form part of Senior Coach Brendan McCartney’s game plan on Sunday and going by the statistics the Bulldogs are well placed to do just that.

The Bulldogs rank fifth in the league for contested ball, and while St Kilda sit 17^th – they haven’t made it easy for their direct opponents who average just 3.7 additional contested possessions per game.

“We don’t go to any game thinking right we are just here to make the numbers up and let’s hope we play ok and kick a few games and sort of be in the game,” McCartney said.

“We want to build a group that prepare the same way every week and go to play a club and have a real crack at it playing the brand of footy we really value and rehearse all the time.

“We weren’t able to do that last week but we have another opportunity this week to turn up and play some really good, strong Bulldogs footy.”

McCartney indicated Dale Morris was likely to go to Nick Riewoldt before the first bounce but said he would need support from his teammates across the ground to stop the athletic forward.

“[Roughead] or Dale Morris [will play on Riewoldt]. Probably Dale, he’s played on him for a long time and with a little bit of luck will get it done early,” he said.

“We’ve got a couple of options down there, in the end he’s a great player but if they’ve got space and can kick the ball and mark the ball they will get it to him.

“We need 18 doing the right thing to help the guy playing on him.”