Western Bulldogs Senior Coach Brendan  McCartney says getting off to a good start against Melbourne is critical, as the Club aims to secure its fourth win of the season this Saturday night at the MCG.

Melbourne showed an increased urgency against St Kilda, playing their first game under new coach Neil Craig, winning the final term and restricting the margin to 35 points – their third shortest margin this season.

“They looked like they had more appetite to compete last week and certainly shared the ball around a little more and the stats indicate that,” McCartney said.

“They all got more of the ball, they got more ball in space and they just looked like a team that wanted to stand for something.

“So the start is important, how we play is really important and how we defend is super important on Saturday.”

In the past 18 months the Bulldogs have produced pleasing results when going head to head with teams at similar stages of development and McCartney said this week is another opportunity to show improvement.

“Every game is important because there are four points there obviously and you are always being scrutinised and evaluated every week, we are not immune to that,” he said.

“We know we are making progress, the scoreboard mightn’t say that some weeks but we are confident we are making progress.

“We are introducing a lot of young people into the team who show that they can play the game at the elite level – [but] not consistently for four quarters yet.”

McCartney highlighted ball movement and team defence as the two key areas the Bulldogs need to become more consistent with. 

“We are a little bit inconsistent with how we move the ball, we are a bit inconsistent with how we defend but we are pretty consistent with our contest and our effort and our willingness to win clearances but there have been some inconsistencies in the other two areas.”