The Western Bulldogs don't have the runs on the board to start dreaming about a deep run this AFL season just yet.

That's the message from coach Luke Beveridge after the league's only unbeaten team moved to a 4-0 start to the season with a scratchy win over battlers Essendon.

And the Bulldogs boss will sweat on scans of injuries to stars Ed Richards (knee) and Tim English (knee) plus young gun Arty Jones (hamstring) ahead of a blockbuster Gather Round clash with Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

While they are flying high now, the Bulldogs dropped away and missed the finals last year and haven't won in September since the 2021 preliminary final.

"We just got no runs on the board," Beveridge said.

"So, I mean, yeah, promising start, but we haven't sustained anything like this any other year.

"So we just need to remind ourselves every week that if we want to emerge as that team, there's a long way to go."

Beveridge's men turned in a scintillating first term against the winless Bombers on Sunday night but were average after quarter-time.

"You saw it tonight under pressure: we didn't handle it too well at times," he said.

"We fumbled. We coughed it up. We missed open field targets too many times in a game where the conditions seemed perfect."

Richards withdrew little more than half an hour before the game after feeling soreness in his left knee when having a kick around ahead of the main warm-up.

"He just felt something in his knee," Beveridge said.

"Even in the meeting that I take, the briefing before the game, I asked him how he was, and he seemed pretty optimistic that he was going to be OK. So he went out, tried to warm up with the group, or just before the group, and it was no good.

"So we don't know the extent of it.

"But we think it's minor, whatever it is, but we didn't want to take any risks and took him out."

Jones had kicked three goals and taken two hangers when he suffered a low-grade hamstring strain.

The unlucky forward played just five games across 2024 and 2025.

"He was impressive. It just seems like every time he just gets going, he gets injured," Beveridge said.

"So we're going to do some work with him to to get his durability up a little bit."