Despite the focus being strictly on football in the lead up to round six, Western Bulldogs midfielder Marcus Bontempelli says the playing group will take time to “enjoy the moment” as the Club plays its first Friday night game since 2012.

The Dogs take on North Melbourne in a top of the table clash, with the two sides battling it out in the timeslot for the first time since 2001, with the winner likely to hold top spot on the ladder at the end of the round.

“This will be my first (Friday night match)," Bontempelli told SEN last night.

“It will be nice for a lot of us to experience Friday night lights for the first time.

“It’s quite different the build-up so for all of us to try and keep the build-up as normal as possible is probably the focus.

“Bevo’s quite big on us just enjoying the moment… so being able to play in Friday night game, let alone against a team like North is going to be a great experience for most.”

The Dogs, who currently hold the best defensive numbers in the league, will come up against the highest-scoring side in the competition, with North averaging 18 goals per game.

But despite that stat, Bontempelli says the game will likely be won in the middle of the ground.

“I think their strength is going to be their height, especially in their forward line, so if we can expose that at some degree… that will probably go a long way to us getting some ascendancy.

“A lot of these games are won inside the contest and they’ve certainly got a strong group of inside mids, so we’ll be doing our best to go head to head and hopefully win that battle at the source.”

As to whether the Bulldogs fast-paced style can hold up across a long season, Bontempelli said he has faith in the work put in over pre-season.

“We worked so hard to build the base for it to be able to train and play that way.

“It’s not something that we’re worried about from a longevity point of view. We feel like we’ve got the group, and the list and the capability to be able to play it for the most part of the year.

“We don’t have too many worries about that as a group”.