Western Bulldogs star Daniel Giansiracusa says Jason Akermanis' defensive pressure, rather than his penchant for the spectacular, will serve as the team's barometer for Saturday night's AFL clash against Port Adelaide.

The high-flying Bulldogs will start as short-priced favourites against Port, whose coach Mark Williams officially ruled a line through their finals ambitions after last week's shock home loss to Richmond.

Port enter the fixture sporting a club-record seven changes, chief of which are the form-based omissions of club stalwarts Brendon Lade and Michael Wilson.

Akermanis, who won three premierships and a Brownlow medal with Brisbane before moving south two years ago, has been one of the key factors in the Bulldogs' rise to second spot behind Geelong.

"He's a match-winner and when we need someone to stand up it's usually him," Giansiracusa said.

"I think everyone sees his goals and stuff like that but it's his defensive pressure that's been great and we just need him to continue that on.

"We don't need him to kick five or six goals each week as long as he contributes with his defence."

The Bulldogs are targeting a top-four spot and the accompanying double chance in the finals, but Giansiracusa said favouritism was no burden.

"If you want to be at the top of the ladder, most games you go in as a favourite," he said.

"So you've got to deal with that expectation and I think we will on the weekend."

The half-forward said the heat was noticeable in Darwin but rigorous pre-game training, including sessions in a heat chamber, had them well prepared.

Power onballer Shaun Burgoyne said the club was still hopeful of victory, despite the omission of Lade and Wilson among the raft of alterations to the team that lost to Richmond.

"It's something you don't really do most weeks," Burgoyne said of the drastically re-shaped line-up.

"We've had five injuries, so five of those were forced changes and the club thought they'd give the opportunity for a couple of younger players to play."

Rake-thin forward Justin Westhoff has been recalled only a week after his demotion to the SANFL, where last week he kicked three goals for Central Districts.

Forward-line coach Jason Cripps said Westhoff would be played closer to goal this week following the failure of an early-season experiment that saw him spending more of his time across half-forward.

"Westy's an interesting one, he's certainly put a lot of pressure on himself this year and the expectation was that he'd come out again and kick 40-50 goals," said Cripps.

"We pushed him further up the ground, and if you look at his statistics he's taken more marks than last year and averaging more shots, but unfortunately his goal-kicking has let him down.

"Coming back into the side now we'd like to think we'll play him closer to goal and hopefully get some more goals on the board and get him feeling good about himself."

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