The Bulldogs return to Mars Stadium for the first of two matches this season when they play host to the undefeated Gold Coast on Sunday afternoon.

This week's clash will mark the 12^th time the Bulldogs have played in Ballarat for premiership points with a 7-4 record to date.

These two sides have met in Ballarat twice before with the Bulldogs winning both game, however Gold Coast has won once at Mars, that being in 2021 when they held off a fast-finishing GWS Giants to win by one point.

Beveridge said the Bulldogs had been embraced by the Ballarat community.

"We look at it as a home-ground advantage basically," Beveridge said on Friday. "We love the community down there. They've really embraced us, and we love the support we get from them.

"When you consider all the challenges and the trauma that's happened in recent times in Ballarat, and the community and what they've had to face - they've needed to band together.

"We're looking forward to going down there tomorrow and preparing well for Sunday's game.

"Hopefully we can put on a really strong showing and put a bit of spring in their step for everyone in Ballarat who supports us."

This week the Western Bulldogs announced a program to give 1800 pairs of football boots or runners to both girls and boys footballers registered in the BFNL.

Western Bulldogs' chief commercial and strategy officer Kon Karavias told The Courier the club was proud to give back with the sportswear giant to the grassroots game in the 'Dogs' Ballarat home base.

"We're thrilled to launch this initiative with our Ballarat family in one of the strongest footy regions in Australia," Mr Karavias said.

"Supporting communities is at the heart of both ASICS and the Bulldogs' philosophy, and with the Ballarat region and surrounds having had some recent challenges, both our organisations felt compelled to offer a small token of support to a community that has embraced the Bulldogs and our partners from day one.

"We hope that this initiative brings some joy to kids and their families and plays a small part in strengthening their connection with community football and their clubs."

Beveridge said the initiative would go a long way to assisting people dealing with cost of living pressures.

"I think that's just an outstanding initiative for those families to think they won't have to buy their kids new boots for a start," he said.

"We just need to keep trying to do things to support people not only in our local region, but definitely in those regional centres too."

With fine weather predicted and the strong form of the Gold Coast in the early part of the season, the club hopes to go close to breaking its attendance record set last year against Adelaide of 10,412.

The game will also be a special one for skipper Marcus Bontempelli, who will captain his 100^th game for the club.

The first bounce of Sunday's clash is at 1pm.