Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge understands why there's question marks over his AFL team.
Last year's beaten grand finalists enter Friday night's away clash against Port Adelaide in 10th spot and yet to win consecutive matches this season.
"The external narrative and question marks over why aren't the Bulldogs winning every week, I get, we understand," Beveridge said.
"There's an expectation, especially based on our momentum in the early parts of last year.
"But it's still into round eight now and we can only take care of the now and what's immediate."
Beveridge's Bulldogs have won four of their past five games at Adelaide Oval, including three against Port - the most recent a stunning 71-point preliminary final triumph last season.
But the Dogs boss, like his Port counterpart Ken Hinkley, downplayed the relevance of that final to Friday night's fixture.
"Sometimes history can get in the way a little bit in your thinking," Beveridge said.
"It's really important that whatever our mindset has been in the past, we have got to find a new freshness to that and a real enthusiasm towards the challenge."
Port named the same team which pipped St Kilda by one point in Cairns last Saturday night, though some doubt remains over forward Mitch Georgiades' calf injury.
Beveridge' has rested captain Marcus Bontempelli and the Dogs have lost Mitch Wallis with the stalwart sidelined by a foot injury.
"We don't want it to flare up ... we're trying different things with him now to make sure we can stabilise it," Beveridge said.
"It's really painful so we're just trying to settle it down and hopefully he doesn't need much longer than one or two weeks out."
Beveridge believed his club's topsy-turvy results so far this season belied some healthy internal trends in "the belief and commitment to system and what we do".
"We have defended extremely well as a group most of the year," he said.
"And we have had some really marginal games with ball use that has really hurt us.
"So defensive system is strong, stoppage stuff has been pretty high-end, turnover game we haven't been able to capitalise.
"But we have seen some good signs.
"That turnover game on Friday night will be really important for both clubs.
"When you consider it's probably going to be a bit damp, I don't think there will be the fluency in the game."
