Cazalys Stadium may be a foreign playground for the Bulldogs but Senior Coach Brendan McCartney is taking confidence from the Club’s strong record in humid conditions.

From the nine games played at TIO Stadium in Darwin, the Bulldogs have won seven and the Club will be looking to continue that record in the northern end of the country.

“Our record in games at a neutral venue in that part of Australia, the high part of Australia, is second to none,” McCartney said.

“We are looking forward to getting up there and playing, we are looking forward to getting into some warmer weather.

“It’s an opportunity to really play well [and] it’s important for the game and we enjoy helping grow the game.”

Playing in the heat and humidity of North Queensland will be a direct contrast to Sunday’s wintery conditions in Geelong and McCartney has been mindful of that in preparations.

“[We have done] a little bit of heat acclimatisation… and just an awareness that late in the week you need more fluid,” he said.

“For us, as much as that, it’s making sure that we recover from a twilight game in the wet at Geelong and… get up into some warm [weather] and play in totally different circumstances.”

Yet to bed down team selection decisions, McCartney was buoyed by the breadth of talent available and pushing for selection both in the senior team and coming through the VFL ranks.

“It’s a challenge we are really looking forward to – we will take some extra players up there and sit on our team for a while yet and put the freshest and most mobile team we can out there,” he said.

“At the moment we are really enjoying the fact that our VFL boys are playing really well and developing good form and good habits.

“We know that we can probably bring a few more of them up and know that they will know what to do out there.”

McCartney also hinted that veteran forward Daniel Giansiracusa was in the mix after serving his two week suspension, with teams to be finalised on Thursday afternoon.