Brandon Wakeham is favoured to wear the Canterbury No.7 jersey against Melbourne after getting an early pass mark from coach Trent Barrett for his performance against Manly.
Barrett's return to Brookvale ended in disappointment on Sunday night, with Daly Cherry-Evans helping edge Manly to a 13-12 win over a gutsy Bulldogs outfit.
There remained plenty to like about a Canterbury team who could easily be undefeated after three rounds but sit 1-2 after back-to-back narrow losses.
The Bulldogs have conceded a total of just 33 points in the first three rounds, less points than they let in per game in the first five rounds of last season.
Polish in attack remains their biggest challenge with five-eighth Matt Burton and fullback Matt Dufty new to the spine.
Barrett's man failed to make the most of their chances in the first half, with Wakeham scoring a try from a grubber kick and throwing the last pass to Dufty to kick for another.
The 23-year-old half was then forced off for a HIA after copping a boot to the face, with the Bulldogs lacking any good ball on his return.
It came after Barrett recalled the half in place of Jake Averillo before kick off, with Kyle Flanagan still in reserve grade and only playing four NRL games since being dropped last May.
"We just thought we needed it a little bit," Barrett said.
"Jake has been doing a really good job there, he is only young. He is in the infancy of his career. All the halves are that we have in our club.
"I thought Wakey did some really good things, I thought he had a really good first half and had a hand in a lot of good things we did.
"He has played really well in reserve grade and I thought he deserved the opportunity.
"He was tough too, it was pretty courageous of him to come back on. He's got a head full of stitches."
Meanwhile, Jack Hetherington is long odds to face the Storm on Sunday after suffering a suspected subluxation of the shoulder in the loss to Manly.
The Bulldogs forward is due for scans on Monday after he battled on for 15 minutes with the injury.
