NEWLY appointed Western Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney doesn't believe he must completely rebuild the Dogs' playing list, but says it does need to be refreshed for the team to challenge for the flag once again.

McCartney takes over a list that made three preliminary finals in succession before crashing to 10th place in 2011, but he gave Dogs fans hope that a return to the finals wasn't far away when addressed the media on Monday.

"I think it's a combination [of a refresh and a rebuild]," McCartney said from Whitten Oval. 

"[I've] worked against this club in the last 18 to 24 months where it has been in a very good position to win a premiership, so there's a little bit of a refresh and there's a rebuild.

"Does every player on the Western Bulldogs list have room for improvement? Yes they do. Do we continue to develop the coaching program? Yes we do.

"Our first- and second-year players have a different challenge in front of them to 200-game players, but ultimately they're all still looking to add one, two or three things to their playing capacity and their personality each year."

With Barry Hall and Ben Hudson retiring at the end of the season and Matthew Boyd, Lindsay Gilbee, Daniel Giansiracusa and Robert Murphy all set to turn 30 next year, McCartney takes over during a transition period for the club, but he says he has plenty to work with.

"There's a lot right about this football club and that 'right' is going to give us a great platform to continue to work on the areas that we need to get better at," he said.

"We won't shy way from them, but we're going to be pitching forward with a lot of the right that is already happening here.

"I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to meet the players and help them get to a realisation point that the success we have for our members and fans will be reliant on them being prepared to play their role within the team, being really clear about their responsibilities to the team and club and providing an environment where those behaviours are reinforced really strongly."

Hall's retirement leaves McCartney to recast the forward line, with a leaky defence another area of concern, but the coach's first order of business is to work at making the Dogs a more rounded team.

"To be a good team you can't have a significant weakness in one area of the game and you also can't have an unhealthy reliance on one area of the game to get you your results," he said.

"You need to be good in all areas of the game.

"We are looking for improvement [defensively] and we will be working on some improvement in that area, but there are a lot of things we do really well here. We'll build on that, capitalise on that, and use it as an opportunity to strengthen some other areas."

Bulldogs' chief executive Simon Garlick said McCartney's "clear and undeniable record" of developing people had stood him apart from other coaching candidates and he reaffirmed the belief within the club that the new coach could engineer a return to the finals in the not-too-distant future.

"Clearly there has been a significant exit of experienced players over the last couple of years, but by no means do we believe that we have to rebuild in the sense of bottoming out," Garlick said.

"Whether it be Matty Boyd or Tom Liberatore we've got complete faith that Brendan is going to be able to teach our playing group everything that they need to know associated with AFL football, but also to assist them to develop as people."

McCartney comes to the Bulldogs after a season with Essendon as assistant coach, which followed 11 years at Geelong and two at Richmond. Before that he was a successful coach in country football.

Essendon coach James Hird earlier this year described him as one of the best coaches he had ever seen and expressed surprise that he had never been appointed to a senior position in the AFL.

In a club statement on Monday afternoon Hird congratulated McCartney on his appointment.

"While we are obviously extremely disappointed to lose someone of Brendan's coaching experience and a person of his calibre, we are delighted for Brendan at the same time," he said.

"He is a fantastic teacher of the game and has an incredible knowledge and understanding of trends in modern football and has taught me a lot over the past 12 months.

"When we appointed Brendan last year, we knew he had a strong ambition to take on a senior coaching role.

"Essendon was incredibly fortunate to have Brendan for the year and on behalf of the club I would like to thank him for his service and wish him all the best for the future."

McCartney replaces Rodney Eade, who was not offered a new contract after seven seasons as coach.

Assistant coach Paul Williams, who took over as interim coach after Eade stood down with three matches remaining, expressed interest in the full-time role, but was overlooked.

Adelaide and St Kilda remain without coaches after the departures of Neil Craig and Ross Lyon.

Like newly-appointed Melbourne coach Mark Neeld, McCartney coached Bellarine Peninsula side Ocean Grove, winning four premierships.

He played with Newtown in the Geelong Football League and will become one of the few AFL/VFL coaches not to have played at the highest level.