The Western Bulldogs are mindful of Carlton’s talent but will instead focus on what they can control in the quest for the four points this Sunday.

Senior Coach Brendan McCartney said the Bulldogs were happy to focus on their preparation and were not distracted by the increased attention surrounding Carlton.

“We’re still a work in progress ourselves and all of our week to date this week is about reviewing last week as a team, in their areas and a lot of one on one coaching with our players,” McCartney said.

“[We will] prepare as we do, the opposition is irrelevant, it’s how we play that is critical to us.

“We don’t mind not being centre stage… there are still four points on offer for us too this week and we think we can get them as well.”

McCartney has been pleased with the continued progression of the Bulldogs forward line, as well as the better supply and support from further up the field.

“It’s still live or die by supply and as I’ve often said… the best attacking teams are generally the best defensive teams,” he said.

“We feel we have been a bit better defending the ground too which has given us some turnover opportunities.”

Winning the contested ball continues to be a focus for the Bulldogs and while they are yet to come out on top in the statistical category, they have broken even in three of their four games.

“The method around creating a contest we have been more than happy with and our setups we are more than happy with,” he said.

“It’s probably a promising sign that we may be not as reliant on it to produce results, which is a good thing but we don’t want to get too far away from what our blueprint is.”