WESTERN Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade believes he can use the new substitute rule to his advantage with his players in a position to exploit their opponents with their fitness and flexibility.

While Eade has expressed his disapproval of the incoming rule, he has moved on from its forthcoming introduction and is now confident his side can actually benefit from the changes. 

"The demand on the players is going to be greater," Eade said at the Bulldogs' season launch on Wednesday night.

"We've heard a lot of teams have really ramped up their training over the summer, so they've gone from whatever they've done to really ramping it up.

"We think the base we've had the last three years is actually going to stand us in good stead.

"We think the three [interchanges] and one [substitute] can be a real advantage for us, a, fitness wise, and b, with the flexibility we've got in our side.

"I don't agree with the rule, but we know it's there and we're prepared to work with it and we think we'll get an advantage with it."

Eade said the Dogs had employed a "more measured approach" until Christmas before ramping up their own training in January.

He said the hard work his players put in over summer had continued throughout the pre-season competition with the immediate aim of beating Essendon in round one and the longer term expectation of making an elusive grand final.

"Footy changes week in, week out, and at this stage, we're doing some different things again this week to hopefully make sure we can win in round one," he said.

"We've got to take it week by week. We've got to get enough wins on board to get in the eight, [then] we've got to get enough wins to get top four.

"If we get top four, we want to play in a grand final and we want to win a premiership."

The Dogs' launch attracted 934 guests at Crown Palladium and saw all 46 players accept their 2011 guernseys from Eade and former captain Brad Johnson.

New draftees Mitch Wallis, Tom Liberatore and Zeph Skinner drew rousing applause while Matthew Boyd said he was enjoying the challenge of captaincy and that he believed the side was capable of winning a premiership. 

Club president David Smorgon announced two upcoming functions as part of the 'Bulldoze the Debt' campaign designed to eradicate the Dogs' $5million liability.

"People have said to me 'why didn't we jump in before the Melbourne football club demolished their debt.'

"We discussed that and what was critical to our club was that we had to have a base at the Whitten Oval we were all proud of," he said.

"We know where our future is [and it is] as we've always said: it's in the heart of the western region right at the Whitten Oval.

"We've created and built a consistent and competitive team that's playing finals year in and year out, and we've almost finished the redevelopment of Whitten Oval.

"The last piece of the puzzle is, we've got debt. We're not alone on that and we've had it for a number of years and it's about time we bulldoze the debt."

The first exclusive function, to be held at Whitten Oval on April 30, will be called The Red, White and Blue Ribbon Event, set to be funded by board member Susan Alberti with a limited number of tickets to sell for $2500 each.

The second will cost $165 to attend a gala event at Crown on June 18, called Bulldoze the Debt.

Smorgon also announced the club had just signed its 26,000th member and was well on its way to reaching the goal of 30,000 paid up members before round one.