Winning ugly. It’s something the Bulldogs haven’t been able to do in recent years, but it was a dogged effort that saw them win just one quarter against St Kilda last Saturday night, yet emerge with the four points.

A third-quarter surge set up the victory for the Bulldogs last weekend, but the confidence from the win is something the young Dogs will look to build on heading into Saturday night against the Blues.

“We probably haven’t been playing our best footy, but getting some momentum and finding a way to win, which was really pleasing about last week’s result,” Assistant Coach Steven King told BulldogsTV.

Sitting inside the top-eight and with a 7-5 win-loss record, King says the Bulldogs’ new game-style is starting to draw the attention of opposition teams.

“For us with a young group, we’re still exploring where we can take it as far as a team,” King said.

“But I think opposition is starting to do a bit of work on us as well which is another challenge when you win a few games, teams plan for you a bit better.”

After an underwhelming start to the year and a change of coach, the Blues have won their last two matches adopting a more free flowing game style under interim coach John Barker.

“It seems to be that they’ve freed themselves up a bit, they’re not running with players as much,” King said.

The number one centre-clearance team in the competition, King said the strength of the Blues’ game is at the coalface led by young midfielder Patrick Cripps.

“They’ve always been a strong clearance and stoppage team, they score heavily from stoppages.

“You see now they’re really taking the game on…they’re playing for each other, they’ve got some excitement about the way they play.”

“They’ve got some belief now, they’ve won their last couple in a row, and they’re going to be quite a challenge on Saturday night.”

The Blues will be without in-form half-back Sam Docherty, who comes out of their line-up with a hamstring injury.

Midfielder Andrew Carrazzo (toe) and crafty, small forward Troy Menzel will also miss through injury.

Defender Michael Jamieson, and youngsters Blaine Boekhorst and Blaine Johnson come into the Calrton side.

For the Bulldogs, young-midfielder Caleb Daniel will make his debut for the Club against the Blues, coming into the senior side along with Mitch Honeychurch and Jack Redpath.

Tom Boyd (knee soreness), Lukas Webb (omitted) and Bailey Dale (omitted) come out of the side to make way for the trio.

The Bulldogs face Carlton at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, with the first bounce scheduled for 7:20pm.

The match will be veteran defender Matthew Boyd’s 250th for the Club, while Koby Stevens will play his 50th game in the red, white and blue.

Pre-match the Bulldogs along with major partner Mission Foods and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will screen animated movie HOME on the big screens in a special school holiday event. The movie will commence off at 5:20pm sharp.