THE WESTERN Bulldogs have received a boost, with defenders Brian Lake and Lindsay Gilbee set to play their first senior games of the season this week.

Gilbee has missed the first two weeks of the season as he recovers from a hamstring injury and Lake has been on the mend from knee, hip and shoulder problems.

Coach Rodney Eade confirmed that they would take their place in the team to face Gold Coast on Saturday afternoon.

"Brian will play and Gilbee will play. Brian's had four games now at Williamstown, which includes a couple of internal trial games. But he is right to go and Lindsay's form was pretty good last week," Eade said on Wednesday afternoon.

Barry Hall didn't train with the main group on Wednesday after he came from the field with back and hamstring problems in last Sunday's win over the Brisbane Lions.

Eade said he Hall was still experiencing some discomfort but was likely to take his place.

"He's improved a lot but still a bit tight in the hamstring. He has improved. He'll have a run this afternoon on a different type of machine that takes a bit of load off. But he'll play at this stage," he said.

Eade said facing the Suns did not have an effect on the decision of whether to play Hall.

"Nothing to do with the opposition. We have the bye the next week, so we need to play as many as we can. But like any player, you are not going to take any risks if there is any doubt," he said.

Eade said he was on the lookout for signs of complacency among his charges after Gold Coast's heavy defeat at the hands of Carlton last week.

"As a coach, you always worry about that sort of scenario. It doesn't matter who you play. If you've won three or four in a row, you think, 'do they get comfortable?'" he said.

"We keep referring back to round one and the standards that we've got and the players that came up with that. There are some measurements going around about how we can measure our work rate and intensity."

"I thought our first 20 minutes were very scratchy, we turned the ball over and made a lot of mistakes, we over handballed. But I was pleased with the intensity and the work rate. If we've got, that there's a fair chance we can win against any side."