WESTERN Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge expects his hurting midfield unit to respond positively as they face up to another litmus test in a crunch clash with Carlton.
The Bulldogs were put to the sword last week in a horror defeat to Port Adelaide, sliced and diced by dynamic duo Connor Rozee and Zak Butters.
The task isn't any easier at Marvel Stadium on Saturday, with Marcus Bontempelli, Adam Treloar and Tom Liberatore coming up against a high-powered Blues engine room led by 200-gamer Patrick Cripps, Sam Walsh and Adam Cerra.
"The boys are stinging a little bit from (the Port Adelaide loss)," Beveridge said on Friday.
"We don't want to be in situations where we're looking for spikes and big peaks in performance as a result of coming off a trife.
"We're looking for consistency and we felt like we'd really established that in the previous month-and-a-half, and probably pre-bye.
"Now, looking into the future, what does our performance look like? We go searching for it against a pretty successful team in Carlton.
"It's another benchmark team to measure ourselves against."
Carlton tagger Alex Cincotta presents another hurdle for the Bulldogs after blunting some big names this season, including Zach Merrett, Touk Miller, Tom Stewart and Butters.
Brownlow Medal contender Bontempelli would be the biggest scalp of all if Cincotta could keep the Bulldogs skipper quiet.
"We expect him to have a role - not sure what it will be," Beveridge said.
"He's played various roles at either end of the ground and through that midfield.
"We've had some discussion trying to crystal-ball some of that.
"We'll have some contingencies there for our players to work with each other and adapt depending on where he goes."
Beveridge said a stronger midfield performance would be vital to protecting an undermanned defence, with Liam Jones (knee), James O'Donnell (concussion) and Ryan Gardner (wrist) all missing.
Alex Keath has been named as an emergency on return from a hamstring injury, with Rory Lobb and Buku Khamis picked to take on dangerous Carlton tall forwards Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay.
