WESTERN Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade won't hesitate to make more changes to his side this week in a bid to find players who are willing to work hard.

A frustrated Eade said the Dogs' inconsistent level of work rate was trying and it was too easy to blame the fixture that had seen his players face back-to-back six day breaks since their round four bye.  

He made four changes at the selection table this week - three of which were unforced and saw Brian Lake, Jordan Roughead and Dylan Addison omitted - and will swing the axe again ahead of round eight after Saturday's eight-point loss to the Sydney Swans.  
 
"We're not afraid to make some changes," Eade said after the match at Manuka Oval.

"We've just got to find players who are prepared to work and work consistently.

"That's why young [Lukas] Markovic has done extremely well, because he's prepared to give a contest and he works, even if he's exhausted. We haven't got enough players who are doing that."

Eade said Barry Hall and Shaun Higgins would return for next Sunday's clash with Richmond while Tom Liberatore was likely to be fit after missing the Swans game with soreness.

There could be more debutants on the horizon, which could add to those three likely changes to next week's side.

Eade said the lack of commitment extended across the board and had also been a problem against Fremantle and Collingwood.

"It's just work rate. We just got outworked in the second and third quarters. In the third quarter it was horrendous, and with the lack of work rate obviously skills can drop off," he said.

"In the last quarter we probably had our chances to win. We didn't deserve to win but we had our chances and again, we need to be able to take those chances, but that's not the issue.

"We've just got to work together through it and we will. Teams go through a rough patch and we're going through a rough patch.

"In the previous two [games] we've worked hard for longer periods and in this one we just didn't work hard enough for long enough."

Eade admitted the fluctuating form of his players and the problems with injuries the Dogs have encountered this year made it hard to know just what his ideal line-up was, or how far away it was to coming together.

"I don't know what that is at the moment. There's obviously a few players who…last year's form and last year's reputations mean nothing. That's not an issue," he said.

"That's gone. It's no good playing players who were in the best team last year; they've got to be able to perform.

"Obviously we've still got to rejig that and work that and that's what we'll find out in the next month or so."

Ruckman Ben Hudson was subbed out in the third quarter but Eade said he wasn't injured or sore in the ankle he missed last Sunday's loss to Collingwood with, and the move was a tactical attempt to inject debutant Zeph Skinner's pace into the game.