Having fought back tears as Brad Johnson announced his impending AFL retirement, midfielder Daniel Cross has no doubt the Western Bulldogs will find an extra edge against Sydney on Saturday night.

The gutsy on-baller said desperation was etched on the Dogs' faces after last weekend's loss to Collingwood, which thrust them into a cut-throat semi-final.

That feeling was magnified after 362-game captain Johnson's announcement on Monday that this would be the last of his 17 seasons.

It means Saturday night's match will be the end for one AFL champion, either Johnson or similarly-inspirational Sydney skipper Brett Kirk, who has also announced his retirement.

While Johnson said his announcement was not meant to spur the team, Cross was certain it would.

"It has to be an extra incentive," Cross told AAP.

"Definitely personally, with a guy like Brad who's given his all, not only for the team as a whole, but individually each person in themselves.

"You would think would want to play that extra bit more and get across the line more for a guy like Brad."

Cross said he had an "overwhelming feeling that something bad was going to happen" when players and staff were called together on Monday, and the emotion in the room was obvious.

"It certainly was. I myself was fighting back tears, he didn't even spit out a word before he started getting emotional," he said.

Cross said the resolve not to let it end this weekend was enormous.

"We're desperate to win, we're absolutely desperate to win, you could see it on the guys' faces after the game," he said.

"We soon picked the mood back up, then to be brought down again by Brad telling us he was leaving next year.

"But we're desperate to win and any extra motivation from anywhere, you'd take it."

Form and fitness factors all point the Swans' way.

They are coming off five straight wins, including a 44-point victory over the Bulldogs three weeks ago, and last weekend's fighting elimination final win over Carlton.

They welcome back forwards Daniel Bradshaw and Ben McGlynn from injury.

The Bulldogs this week added Shaun Higgins to an injury list including stars Adam Cooney and Dale Morris.

They have punted on youth to create a spark, adding teenage first-gamer Andrew Hooper and inexperienced defender Easton Wood.

But they have lost three of their past four matches, and worryingly, kicked four of their six lowest scores of the season in their past five games.

Cross said the answer was to back their instincts.

"We have to be more instinctive as a team, that's when we play our best footy," he said.

"We're sort of getting stuck into teams holding us up a little bit and we have to try to beat that and bust through it."

History favours the Bulldogs, who lost their first final in the past two seasons, but bounced back for comfortable semi-final wins.

Their premiership ambition still burns strongly.

"We all dream about it, I think about it every day. You don't train 50 weeks of the year to just throw it away and blow it away now," Cross said.

"Where there's a heartbeat, there's hope."

Bulldogs assistant coach Leon Cameron said the club would not try anything too radical.

"You don't want to turn it on its ear too much ... (we showed) for 19 weeks we know what we can do.

"We can get back to that style of play that we know we can (play), with the players we've got."

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