The Western Bulldogs have named an unchanged line up to face Essendon on Sunday afternoon, with Tom Boyd, Lin Jong and Sam Darley coming into the squad.

The three players were named as emergencies against Collingwood last weekend, but come into an extended Dogs line up due to the Sunday game.

OPPOSITION ANALYSIS: An in-depth look at how the Bombers will line up.

Bulldogs senior assistant coach Brett Montgomery said the coaching staff were confident in the team that took on the Pies to get the job done again this weekend.

“I think at selection we’ve trialled a number of things in terms of line up and talls and smalls… and we haven’t necessarily gone into any given week wanting to make a whole range of changes, that’s just the way it’s fallen.

“We’re a little bit more settled this week, we haven’t done that for a number of weeks, we’d have to go back quite some time to find a no-change line up so we’re confident with the way we’re heading.”

Essendon went down to Port Adelaide last weekend by 13 points but welcomed promising performances from their young talent.

Despite sitting 14th, Montgomery said the Bulldogs would be prepared for a tough contest.

“I thought they were really good against a quality team. They’ve got some selection concerns of their own, whether they stick with the youth that gave them that excitement and that energy on the weekend or they turn to some mature heads that they can rely on a little bit more so we’ll keep a really close eye on that.

“We’re expecting a pretty fierce contest, we’re also expecting a pretty fast game… we might (be) getting the Bombers at a time where they’re just starting to find some form.”

A win on Sunday would take the Dogs to 11 wins and hold their place in the top six, after five wins in their last six hit outs.

But Montgomery says that the most pleasing thing for his side in recent weeks has been their ability to learn along the way.

“We were really pleased with the way we played on the weekend.

“We’d been learning a lot of lessons along the way, particularly over the last month, but we were lucky enough to be learning those lessons while we were winning.

“It was good to see us, and important to see us, get back on the winning list but also more importantly get back to how we want to play.

OPPOSITION TEAM: View the Essendon line-up for Sunday's match at Etihad Stadium.

ROUND 18 – Essendon v Western Bulldogs
Sunday 2 August 2015, 3:20pm
Venue: Etihad Stadium

In: S Darley, L Jong, T Boyd