The Western Bulldogs may have a rather lengthy injury list, however as Ken Hinkley explains, it can no longer be used as an excuse for their poor run of form.

Since their 4-0 start to the season, the Bulldogs have lost five of their last six, smashed by Hawthorn, Geelong and Sydney consecutively, losing by two goals to both Fremantle and Carlton and only mounting a two-point win over Port Adelaide.

The club’s nightmare run can certainly be linked to their injury crisis; Sam Darcy went down with an ACL in Round 6, Tim English has played just twice since Round 4, both key backs in Rory Lobb and James O’Donnell suffered hamstring injuries and Tom Liberatore has faced numerous concussion issues.

However, Hinkley believes that the strength of the playing list should be enough to dig out far better results than the club has mounted over the last six weeks.

“Bulldogs, start finding some news ways and stop using the old excuses of injuries,” he told SEN Sportsday.

“You can’t do that. You just cannot go down the track of injuries and use that as your way out. Start finding some new ways of playing football.

“Maybe, Bevo (Luke Beveridge), start doing some tagging. Maybe it’s worthwhile doing instead of getting your blokes run around, or Marcus Bontempelli getting a cover all the time.

“How about you try doing something with Patrick Cripps? Perhaps you could have put someone on Patrick Cripps.

“It might be a good time to start thinking about some different tactics for the Bulldogs, because their season is falling off a cliff big time.”

Ensuring the criticism wasn’t directed solely at the club itself, the former Port Adelaide coach also noted those around the club that continue to use injuries as a basis for the side’s poor form.

“Everyone is using the injury excuse about the Dogs, not necessarily directly out of the Kennel. I would say it’s coming out of everyone else’s mouth,” Hinkley said.

“Sam Darcy is a great player, I get it, but there’s good players going down across the competition.

“Errol Gulden went down in Opening Round, Connor Rozee went down in Round 2 – Port isn’t going as well as (Sydney), but they are putting up a better performance at the moment then what the Dogs have been able to put up.

“I think their narrative has got to change to what we have got, not what we haven’t got. They look like they’re down in confidence as much as anything.

“Sam Darcy was a massive injury on a horrible night down in Geelong (Round 5), an absolute chaos night for them down there. But you’ve got to start doing something about it. You can’t just let it keep going the way it is.

“I don’t know if you’ve looked at their next six – it doesn’t look great. It’s a pretty challenging six. They’ve got Melbourne this week to start with, as they’ve been declared, new box office Melbourne.”

Sam Edmund added: “Melbourne, Collingwood, Hawthorn, Adelaide, St Kilda and Sydney – that’s the next block of games.”

Hinkley: “Do they start favourites in any?”

Edmund: “Probably not.”

Hinkley: “You’ve got to find a way, and that’s their challenge.

“And maybe, Bevo, because I think Bevo is a bit of a non-tagger… maybe mini-Bont (Joel Freijah) might have to go to work. He’s been a bit out of form. There’s been a few of their better mids out of form.

“Maybe to get him back into form, getting on a good player can help you get to the ball, like a young Finn O’Sullivan does.”

The Dogs’ test against the Dees is set for Sunday afternoon at Marvel Stadium.