Western Bulldogs star Robert Murphy says his team will be playing Brisbane on 'neutral territory' this Saturday when the teams clash at the MCG.

Murphy and his team will play just their second game at the MCG for the year, while this is the first time in 2008 that Brisbane will take to the hallowed turf.

"It's almost neutral territory to play Brisbane because there's no real home ground advantage for us there," Murphy told a press conference at Telstra Dome on Friday.

"We don't get the chance to play there very often."

Murphy will make his return after serving a one-match ban for rough conduct.

"It was a bit different last week sitting in the stands, body feels pretty fresh so it'll be nice to have a run around," he said.

The third placed Bulldogs have lost just one match for the season, while Brisbane is sitting in seventh having won their last four games by an average of just over five goals.

"Brisbane is probably one of the form teams of the competition, so it'll be a pretty big game."

Murphy said the Bulldogs are starting to play the football they believed they were capable of, but refused to be drawn into talking about the likely chance of playing finals.

"It's too dangerous to look too far down the track - I'd be too worried to look anywhere past the game this week against Brisbane they're a great side, we'll have our work cut out for us," he said.

"I think we're starting to get close to the sort of football we want as players to play, whether it gets us to the finals and wins us finals, who knows?"

Responding to questions about Brad Johnson's lower output this season compared to recent years, Murphy said it was an advantage for the Bulldogs' forwards to have a more shared load.

"Brad's output is still pretty high, but the way we've got it now is probably a healthier balance," he said.

"Apart from Will (Minson) who's six foot five and over 100 kilos, the rest of us are all around the same size, so I think we're almost forced down that path that we have to have a pretty even share."

"It's just a different way of setting up you're forward line, I don't think there's any rules on how to do it. Brisbane has got a great way of how they score goals and we think ours is a pretty effective way as well."

Brisbane's forward line differs completely from the Bulldogs', with the Lions having two tall, strong forwards in Daniel Bradshaw and Jonathan Brown to contend with, though Bradshaw will miss this match with a hamstring injury.

Murphy said he thought Brian Lake would be the man to stop Brown.

"I imagine Brian Lake probably is a fair show, Tom Williams is another one," he said.

"Whoever it is has got their work cut out – I think he's probably the best player going around."