Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse is wary of what his unbeaten AFL side will face when they play the Western Bulldogs.

The vagaries of the draw and a round-four bye means the Bulldogs will have played only once in three weeks before Sunday's twilight clash at Etihad Stadium.

The Magpies will start favourites, despite losing ruckman Darren Jolly with the recurrence of a knee injury.

There are question marks over the Bulldogs, who have a 2-2 record and are yet to hit their best form this season.

But Malthouse was impressed with how they played in the seven-point Anzac Day away loss to Fremantle.

"I thought they did very well over in the west - that's a hard ground to negate," he said.

"Any side in the first five weeks that has a bye, they seem to slip under the radar, so to speak.

"You're so conditioned to everyone playing on the same weekend or thereabouts that when a bye is slipped in, you lose track of that side for a little bit.

"Reality-wise, when you analyse the last month of football, they've been pretty good."

There are no queries about the defending premiers, who remain the team to beat after overcoming Essendon by 30 points in their Anzac Day blockbuster.

The Bombers are worried they might have to rest some players this weekend because the Collingwood clash took so much out of them.

Malthouse said he had no such concerns, saying there were marginally more contested possessions in the match.

"It's not remarkable, it simply means that the game has developed into something different than what we've seen two or three years ago - and that is absolute," he said.

"There's no question about that, there's more contested football these days."

He said the Bulldogs, like the Bombers, would put greater emphasis on winning contested possession.

"Essendon have developed a new strategy over the period since Jimmy Hird has been there, reasonably similar to a lot of other sides," Malthouse said.

"It's going to have a lot of one-on-one football which, by the sheer mention of one-of-one, means more contested football.

"The 'Dogs are playing slightly different to last year, they're protecting their back half better, which means there's going to be a lot more contested football."

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