AFTER a week of discussion around styles of football and the wider future of the AFLW, Western Bulldogs leader Ellie Blackburn said she welcomes informed criticism of the women's competition.

The Dogs themselves kicked off a broader conversation about the competition after a negative and highly defensive game against Essendon last Friday night, going goalless for the third time in eight matches this season.

"Obviously, we hate to be the punching bag when it comes to this, unfortunately from our perspective. But in saying this, this is something players have asked for, and there's no shame or hiding from that by any means," Blackburn said on The W Show.

"We want criticism of the game, we want honest opinions, honest analysis, whether it's from media, personalities, coaches or other players, whatever that looks like. But there needs to be fair opinions, you need to have the full picture and understanding of it."

Blackburn herself wasn't playing due to a serious foot injury, with veteran defenders Lauren Ahrens (foot) and Mua Laloifi (ACL) also not on the park.

"From our point of view, we had so much experience on the sidelines, we had over 200 (cumulative) games sitting on the sidelines (for comparison, the Dogs only played 10 matches last season)," Blackburn said.

"We had the fourth-youngest team fielding a side in the history of the AFLW on Friday night, so these are all factors as to why our game panned out the way it did and why the game plan and style was the way it was, in order to be competitive and play against a team we thought scored highly. These are all contributing factors.

"But in saying that, I don't hate that the game's being spoken about like this. It's great to have the conversation, it's great more people are talking about it, there's more eyes on the game.

"We're not talking about it like 'it's great the girls are having a go', we're analysing the game for what it is. And for that, I respect and appreciate it."

In his mid-week press conference, Sydney coach Scott Gowans cautioned while he wasn't able to comment on individual clubs' game-style decisions without knowing their full rationale, an attractive style of football is key to growing the competition.

"Other coaches might have different tactics that they're trying to teach their players and we're not privy to that," Gowans said.

"But as a general philosophy for AFLW, it's really important that we take the game on and put on a good show to lift numbers that come to the game and broadcast.

"We all have a vested interest in that as a collective, so it's vital that we keep doing that and I'm sure that's the aim of all the coaches."