Coach Luke Beveridge has lauded his midfield brigade as the Western Bulldogs responded to their round one loss to Melbourne with a thumping 48-point win over Gold Coast.
Small forward Cody Weightman was outstanding on Sunday, booting four first-quarter majors, then equalling his career-best haul with six goals in total.
But Beveridge highlighted a midfield led by skipper Marcus Bontempelli (31 disposals, 10 clearances and two goals), Adam Treloar (27 touches) and Tom Liberatore (eight clearances).
As Jack Macrae starred in the VFL to push for a recall, his teammates' drive was crucial to the Bulldogs' nine-goal first quarter that set up a 18.7 (115) to 10.7 (67) victory at Ballarat's Mars Stadium.
"There's no doubt we had a lot more pressure around the footy (compared to the Melbourne game) and the combat from our inside mids was quite extraordinary at times," Beveridge said.
"What the boys did out of the middle early just to give us some momentum and then at the coalface, we were just really strong."
Beveridge was "a little bit disconcerted" after the Bulldogs lowered their colours against Melbourne but had been unwilling to make wholesale changes.
"We were pretty firm on not throwing the toys out after one disappointing experience," he said.
Macrae racked up 47 disposals in the VFL to give Beveridge a pleasing selection headache ahead of next Sunday's clash with West Coast.
"It's not that we didn't consider Jack this week," Beveridge said.
"But one of the important things is you back your preparation in and the temptation was there but for Harvey (Gallagher) and Ryley Sanders to play as the supporting act, they've really earned - they've done extremely well.
"Jack is still in a build and today at VFL level's probably enough evidence that he's pretty ready to step up. So there's no doubt he'd be considered and he'd be a big chance to come in.
"So we'll work out what the shuffle is because of the five inside mids who played through there, none of them did anything wrong - so it becomes a bit of a team balance decision as well."
Ed Richards was concussed after being collected high by David Swallow early in the final quarter, with the incident likely facing match review officer scrutiny.
Defender Nick Coffield suffered a first-quarter right shoulder injury - though his replacement Oskar Baker stepped up to kick three goals.
Suns young gun Bailey Humphrey (shoulder) was a late withdrawal while Gold Coast were also without co-captain Jarrod Witts (groin).
The Bulldogs were red-hot early and led by 41-points at the first change.
Gold Coast reduced the deficit to 28 points at half-time - and the margin was the same at three-quarter time.
Early in the fourth, Weightman snapped his sixth before Bontempelli kicked the sealer.
After his first loss in charge, Suns coach Damien Hardwick said the Bulldogs taught his highly-regarded midfield "a lesson around scrimmages."
"The first and last (quarters) I thought were disappointing. The second and third, I thought we made them play and had the game a little bit on our terms," Hardwick said.
"The Bulldogs were too good today but there's a lot of self-inflicted wounds, so to speak, that we'll be able to tidy up, I think, relatively quickly."
Gold Coast (2-1) now have the bye.
