Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade has put the heat on his senior players to lift their performance in Friday night's knockout semi-final against Brisbane at the MCG and is confident they will do just that.

For the second year running the Dogs find themselves in a knockout semi-final after losing their qualifying final and Eade is confident the club can again rebound from last week's 14-point loss to Geelong, just as it did last year when it beat Sydney by 37 points in the semi-finals just a week after copping a 51-point hiding from Hawthorn in the qualifying final.

A host of star Bulldogs players including skipper Brad Johnson, Shaun Higgins, Ryan Griffen, Mitch Hahn, Daniel Giansiracusa and even rebounding defenders Jarrod Harbrow and Ryan Hargrave were well below their best last week yet the Dogs still almost overcame a Geelong side on the verge of appearing in its third straight grand final.

Eade said his players can take heart from that, ahead of the clash with the Lions, but says some of his key players must lift this week if the Dogs are to reach the preliminary final for the second year running.

"We had players down last week that have been down for a couple of weeks and it's about what they can bring to the side and why they haven't been able to do that (lately)," Eade said on Tuesday.

"I'm not sure about (putting) the acid (on them) but it's about talking to them about their responsibilities."

"I suppose the one positive from last week was we didn't play well and they (Geelong) had the seven or eight best players on the ground and we only lost by two goals."

"But we have to play for four quarters and the players I spoke to acknowledged they didn't play well and they didn't hide from that fact."

"And it wasn't just about dropped marks and missed kicks and but about things the public and media don't see such as players working hard to cover for each other which was really missing in that first quarter (last week)."

And Eade has admitted that some players may pay the price for their poor form at selection with Andrejs Everitt, Dylan Addison and Tim Callan all in contention to come into the side this week.

But key defender Tom Williams, who has been out with a foot injury since Round 20, is unlikely to return with Eade saying it was