Old-fashioned "grunt" will be Rodney Eade's main demand this Saturday for the Western Bulldogs' must-win AFL match against Adelaide.

Eade's eighth-placed Bulldogs will be the underdogs for the MCG game and are not yet guaranteed of a finals berth despite holding a two win gap over ninth-place Geelong with three games left.

While the `Dogs should make the top eight, they are down to as few as 25 available players because of their long injury list.

Rohan Smith is the latest player in doubt, apparently because of a foot injury.

The Bulldogs coach acknowledges the season might now be having its effect, especially on his younger players, but he refuses to acknowledge that as an excuse.

Eade was only half-joking when he spoke about the "good old days", before the current trends of fitness tests and well-being indicators for players.

"It's not like the good old days, where blokes find a way and push through the pain barrier and all that lovely stuff us coaches love to talk about," he said.

"But I think there's a bit of that ... maybe it's a bit of an out, I'm saying that generally with footballers.

"The fact we have a young team, our older blokes are pretty good at it, but our younger blokes have just got to learn to be able to tough it out .

"The well-being index is maybe thrown out the window this week, they've just got to find a way and show a bit of mental strength - I think today in modern footy sometimes, we mollycoddle the boys a bit."

The Bulldogs have lost four of their last six games, including last Saturday night's match against Port Adelaide in Darwin.

Nathan Eagleton (hamstring) and Shane Birss (corked calf) joined the club's casualty list after the match.

Eade confirmed Smith would not have a full training session.

"He'll just do a little bit and hopefully he'll be right by Friday to train," Eade said

Despite the ongoing injury problems and faltering form, Eade is confident his hard-running team can make an impact next month if it can make the finals.

"Even if we lost all three (games) and we still got in the eight, we'd more than likely have a Melbourne final and get Eagleton, (Daniel) Giansiracusa and (Brett) Montgomery back," he said.

"I'd be very disappointed if we didn't have some sort of impact.

"Now that doesn't mean we'll win the first final, but I'd certainly be positive we would have a good account of ourselves."

He added the Bulldogs' work rate and work ethic had dropped off in the last few weeks and those areas are where Eade is demanding improvement.

While the Crows are top, they have lost two of their last three and have a growing injury list.

"We've got more worries about our form rather than worrying about Adelaide's form," Eade said.

"Certainly we will look at the opposition, but we have to get back to the way we want to play.

"Some things that are acceptable about the way we go about it, (they) just haven't been there - that's going to be our main focus."

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