The Western Bulldogs are on the rise according to Assistant Coach Brett Montgomery ahead of this weekend’s clash against Carlton.

A solid showing against Melbourne last weekend saw the Bulldogs come away with the four points in their third consecutive win.

“The most important and encouraging thing to come out of this weekend was the way that we played,” Montgomery said.

“All our key indicators were met and that was really pleasing — we can’t say we have had that for the whole year so far.

“We are on the way up.”

The Bulldogs kept a close reign on Melbourne, applying solid defensive pressure for the whole four quarters and ultimately keeping them out of the contest.

“[Defensive pressure] is not something we want to fluctuate or something we want to flirt with,” he said.

“This week it was certainly at its best particularly in the forward half where we had a lot of leg speed in Hooper, Dahlhaus, Cooney, Grant and these types.

“They were able to put enough pressure on the Melbourne backs to create opportunities for us to score and that is something we haven’t been able to put together for four quarters all year.”

The Bulldogs starting 22 is being kept further accountable with a number of players on the sidelines making a push for senior selection.

Players including Nathan Djerrkura, Jordan Roughead, Dylan Addison and Tom Liberatore have all made their claim for the call up, finding form in the Williamstown lineup.

“There’s certainly four or five guys pressing their claims for this week but as for selection, we’ll just have to wait and see,” he said.

Third ranked Carlton are coming off an 103 point mauling of Richmond and will be keen to build on the momentum.

“When they are playing fast they are a really hard team to combat,” Montgomery said.

“They are a very different team [this year] made up of a maturing list, a classy list, certainly a fast bunch of players so we are going to have our hands full.

“We are going to have to come up with some pretty special plans to get on top of them.”