A HOOD covers the player's head, the shadows over his face making him seem grim, determined. It's Western Bulldogs forward Mitch Hahn, and the headline that accompanies the story in The Age says it all: Hard man of the west.

Brave stuff, particularly as the other Melbourne daily, the Herald Sun, ran an almost identical image of Dale Morris on the morning before he – and his team – were taken apart by a Lance Franklin-inspired Hawthorn in the qualifying final a week earlier.

But the Hahn angle characterises the way the Bulldogs have presented themselves to the football world this week - a week in which they have been the subject of harsh media scrutiny following an abject finals performance.

In Friday's Sun, skipper Brad Johnson put the acid on himself and the other club leaders. "It starts with myself," he said. "The senior guys certainly need to put in a game that gives us what we have produced this year."

It continues a theme we saw earlier in the week, with coach Rodney Eade challenging his players to produce in the heightened atmosphere of finals football.

"It's being able to perform when the heat's on," Eade said, "and that's what we've got to be able to do on Friday night."

The Dogs have even gone public about abandoning motivational speakers, preferring to light their finals fire themselves.

The message has been a consistent one: we were embarrassed last week, but we'll make amends. It's a mia culpa with a sting in the tail.

The tough talk is, of course, all well and good. But until the Bullies live up to their early season promise by winning through to a preliminary final against Geelong, the words will ring hollow.

To do that, Eade's team must overcome the Sydney Swans, as hardened a finals opponent as the Dogs could hope to meet.

It's a big challenge but, equally, an opportunity – a chance for the Dogs to prove that their walk is every bit as tough as their talk.