Senior Coach Brendan McCartney has made no secret that the Western Bulldogs are seeking wins in the final four rounds and this Saturday provides the next opportunity.

After going toe-to-toe with Sydney for three quarters, the Bulldogs now turn their focus to the Blues in hope of adding to their five wins this season, but McCartney expects another huge challenge.

“There’s still four weeks to go, we are playing a strong club that has won half of their games,” McCartney said.

“They have some things they do remarkably well when they play well and we have to be able to match that for longer on the weekend.”

“They are a really well structured club, well coached by a legend of the game who will have them wound up.”

McCartney said the Bulldogs pay respect to their opposition each week but need to focus on their own strengths and sustain their efforts for longer to win games.

“We spend enough time on the opposition to know their strengths and weaknesses but we don’t fret about them or get anxious about them,” he said.

“We are looking forward to our game on Saturday and continuing some good form.”

After a solid pre-season campaign, the Bulldogs are showing signs of physical maturity, with an increased endurance base allowing them to run out games stronger.

“Part of the focus all year [and] in the pre-season was to get more running in our younger players so they would last through the year,” he said.

“They struggled to deal with a full season last year, and we did run into some really strong clubs too right at the end with a lot of injuries.

“We are managing tough games we are managing still good training volumes and we are managing good clubs much, much better.

“Which shows us we are probably building some young boys that are going to be able to play a pretty tough style of game and back it up most weeks.”