THE CURSE on its ruckmen may have struck again but midfielder Jack Redden says the Brisbane Lions feel anything but doomed ahead of Saturday night's clash with the Western Bulldogs.

The Lions appear to be up against it, facing stoppage kings the Bulldogs with a makeshift ruckman, and at a venue where they have lost nine of their past 11 games by an average margin of 58 points.

And that's not including the 131-point pre-season loss to Hawthorn.

While Redden admitted winning was not quite a habit yet for the Lions, despite their last round upset over Carlton, he backed his side to make some ground on the AFL ladder in the coming weeks.

The Lions (2-8) have a chance to string together three straight wins with a home game against Greater Western Sydney following the clash with the Dogs.

"We understand there are some very gettable games coming up," he said.

"We had a tough draw at the start of the season.

"But if we can build on last week I think we can win a few and finish the year strong with some confidence."

Not that Redden was taking anything for granted on Saturday night.

"Each game is hard for us and we have to play our best footy to win," he said.

"There are no easy games for us any more."

Their task will be made that much harder by ruckman Trent West's season ending knee injury suffered in the win against Carlton.

West had lifted in the absence of No.1 ruckman Matthew Leuenberger, still five weeks away from returning from his own knee injury.

Backed by two reserves games in his own comeback from injury, Stefan Martin - who has 62 AFL games under his belt - appears the likely replacement ahead of basketball convert Archie Smith.

Still, Redden backed Brisbane to compete against a Dogs outfit that is one of the best at winning contested football.

"If we can nut them in the middle it will go a long way to winning."