Western Bulldogs defender Matt Suckling admits much of his team's planning heading into next Thursday night's elimination final against West Coast will revolve around stopping superstar Eagles forward Josh Kennedy.
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Kennedy claimed back-to-back Coleman Medals last weekend with his five-goal performance against Adelaide and has an equal-career best 80 majors in the bank with the finals yet to commence.
Of greater concern for the Bulldogs is that Kennedy has kicked more goals against them than any other team.
The former Blue has booted 43 goals against the Dogs – including bags of 10, seven and seven – at an average of 3.6 per meeting.
"He's obviously a fantastic player, we watched the game on the weekend against Adelaide and how well he played," Suckling said.
"I think he got lots of supply from their midfield so I'm sure if we stop it further up the ground it makes it harder for him.
"It's hard to ignore big forwards like that, they're pretty special and on their day they can turn a game."
The challenge of negating Kennedy will be made harder due to the unavailability of Dogs key defender Marcus Adams (foot) who kept the All-Australian vice-captain to just five touches and one goal in round 11.
That means one of the undersized trio of Fletcher Roberts, Joel Hamling and Dale Morris will spend most of their time on Kennedy at Domain Stadium.
The Bulldogs are hopeful of All-Australian backman Easton Wood (ankle) returning and his defensive teammate Jason Johannisen said it would take a team effort to curtail Kennedy's influence.
"They have a lot of good forwards, we're going to have to be at our best to limit their goals so we can't focus on one player, we're just going to have to play our system and do the best we can," Johannisen said.
Another player who could return to the team and make a difference for the Dogs is banished superstar Jake Stringer who has spent his last two weekends in the VFL.
"We know 'String' is a pretty special player and if the match committee decide to pick him, we would be very happy to play with him," Suckling said.
Suckling said Stringer's axing sent a strong message to the group.
"We've got such a strong list here and big depth as we've seen throughout the year and everyone knows they've got to play well to keep their spot," Suckling said.
Johannisen said Stringer was a resilient character and took a good attitude into his stint with the twos.
"He's tackled it really well. He's gone back and got some really good form," Johannisen said.
"He understands that's what happens in footy and he's just doing the best he can.
"He understands what he needs to do back there and I think he's going really well."
West Coast have hit peak form at the right time with impressive victories over fellow finalists GWS (away), Hawthorn and Adelaide (away) in the last three weeks. Suckling is hopeful that the bye weekend preceding the finals could halt their momentum.
The dual premiership defender is keen to avoid a shootout similar to the Bulldogs' elimination final loss to Adelaide last year – a game that produced 30 goals.
Injuries to key players have decimated the Bulldogs line-up this year but Suckling denied it had an adverse impact on the team's morale.
"Everyone has injuries and we've been hit by them as well but I suppose we're just excited each week that 22 blokes get to play ... everyone is jumping out of their skin," he said.
The Bulldogs have recorded close wins against Sydney, Collingwood and Port Adelaide this year in finals-like intensity and Johannisen believes that will hold them in good stead in the most important month of the season.
"We know if it's going to go down to the wire, we have the belief to win the game."
