THE WESTERN Bulldogs will unveil yet another father-son recruit for their clash with Richmond, Lachie Hunter.
After the Tigers thrashed them in round three, coach Brendan McCartney has forecast several changes to the team for the round 13 clash, including Hunter, the son of former Bulldog Mark.
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"He's been in great form. He's the fourth in that batch from that draft, which we're really excited about and we think we've found another good player," McCartney said on Thursday.
"I think he'll be a midfielder in time, he's probably more suited to playing forward at the moment.
"He's very creative. He just understands the game and when the ball's near him, good things happen."
The Dogs' former players are doing their best by the club to keep the list healthy, and Hunter will join Tom Liberatore and Mitch Wallis as a father-son recruits who have played senior football in the past three years.
The fixture sees the Dogs and Tigers meet for the second time in half a season on Saturday night at Etihad Stadium, and McCartney said the memory of the 67-point belting in April was still fresh in the players' minds.
"They remember the start where they got us, how non-thinking we were around the ball and how they were able to play the way they wanted," McCartney said.
"They gave us a pretty good working over so it's our challenge to deal with that.
"They have a perception of us and how they think they can beat us and we've got to be able to deal with it and play well."
Meanwhile, McCartney said Easton Wood was "fit and strong" but the Dogs weren't expecting him back for three to four weeks as they investigate the origin of his hamstring woes.
Wood has played just one game this season - incidentally, the last time the Dogs played the Tigers - because of a lengthy hamstring issue.
"We had to repair the hamstring tendon injury first, which is more than a normal hamstring muscle injury, so we had to do that first, which took longer," he said.
"Now that it's repaired, we're going through a battery of tests that will hopefully tell us why, whether it's structural, or running mechanics or the way his hips are positioned.
"At the moment if we use him, we're fearful it will happen again until we know exactly what the cause is ... but the tests have been pretty exhaustive."
Veteran Daniel Giansiracusa has donned the substitute's vest on multiple occasions this year, which McCartney said was due to a "combination" of reasons.
He said Giansiracusa had made it clear he wanted to head into coaching when he stopped playing and was proving to be an asset when working with the young players while he was on the bench.
"We're maximising what Gia's got pretty well, we think," he said.
"It's working and we're developing some other players around him that are going to be good players for us for a long time.
"It's pretty much to help him get through the season and to get through games and we won't sub him every week but he'll be more often than not."
Defender Tom Williams had his shoulder reconstructed on Tuesday and will likely spend time away from the club while he completes another rehabilitation.
McCartney said the Dogs were still "working through the process" of finding a new football manager to replace James Fantasia and endorsed candidate Wayne Campbell as a "good football person".
