WESTERN Bulldogs won’t be taking a backwards step in today’s NAB Challenge at Eureka Stadium.Coaching staff are keen to put the finishing touches on the Bulldogs’ game plan ahead of their opening-round AFL clash with Essendon on Sunday, March 27.Development coach Chris Maple said his charges would be “having a real crack” in their final pre-season hit-out against North Melbourne.“This is pretty much a real warm-up for round one, to be quite honest. We’ll be sending up a very strong side and be practising our structures and plans and trying to have a really good game,” Maple said.Adam Cooney is one of a number of stars being rolled out for the practice match, with the Brownlow medallist set to make his first appearance for the Bulldogs since a hamstring injury put him out for all of last year’s finals series.Maple said the dynamic midfielder would play about 75 per cent game time today after a successful hit-out with the Bulldogs’ Victorian Football League affiliate Williamstown last week.“Adam has had an interrupted pre-season, that’s been well documented through his hamstring and knee problems. We think he’s on top of that and it will be good to get some game time into him,” Maple said.“We’ll be looking for him to run a fair percentage of the game and hope he can find a bit of the footy.”Today’s clash will be the Bulldogs’ fourth pre-season fixture.The Bulldogs were one of 10 teams eliminated after the first round of the NAB Cup, but managed to beat the Kangaroos by 31 points in the first of two shortened clashes. They crashed from the competition after a 21-point loss to Geelong in the following match.The Bulldogs were 70-point winners over the Brisbane Lions at Melbourne’s Visy Park in their opening NAB Challenge game and clinched a 30-point victory over Fremantle in Bunbury, Western Australia, last weekend.The majority of the club’s stars have been assembled in a 25-man squad to visit Ballarat today – including spearhead Barry Hall – but Ballarat exports Andrew Hooper and Jordan Roughead are not included.