Senior coach Luke Beveridge says the Western Bulldogs will have a big challenge on their hands when they meet the West Coast Eagles at Marvel Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Both sides will enter the clash off the back of opening round wins – the Bulldogs 16-point victors over the Pies, and the Eagles by 25 points over the Gold Coast Suns.

The last time the two teams did battle was a nail-biter, with the Dogs recording a narrow two-point triumph in round 16 last year, thanks to a Marcus Bontempelli goal from outside 50.

But the Bulldogs’ boss expects this meeting to be a different challenge.

“Last year when we played them, their big ruckman Nic Naitanui didn’t play so it will be a different experience for us with him in the team,” Beveridge told media on Tuesday morning.

“I think (Jamie) Cripps didn’t play, Shannon Hurn didn’t play – obviously they’d like to have Elliot Yeo in there and Luke Shuey, and some of their other prime movers so they’re spreading that load through the midfield area.

“They’ll be as dangerous as they ever have been, even without those midfield prime movers. We look forward to the challenge.”

Premiership defender Easton Wood made a successful return from his hamstring injury in a VFL practice match, but Beveridge said it’s unlikely he’ll be rushed back into the side.

The Bulldogs’ back line will have to contend with a tall West Coast forward line, on the back of restricting Collingwood to just seven goals.

“(Easton’s) missed a bit of footy, and sometimes it’s hard to change a winning side when the back end were particularly good,” Beveridge said.

“One of our work-on objectives this year is to be better defensively – we still want to score as much as anyone like any team, but to keep Collingwood to the lowest score of the round was a big win for us.

“The back seven were a big part of that, and Easton’s aware of that. He got through the (VFL) game which was really important after he’d had a couple of hiccups.

“He might spend another week or two playing state league and getting cherry ripe for his return.”

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