Trengove will return at Optus Stadium on Saturday, having been surprisingly overlooked for the Dogs' first five games.

The 197cm veteran arrived at Whitten Oval as a free agent in 2017 on a lucrative four-year deal after compiling 153 games for Port Adelaide.

Trengove played 16 games last season but appeared to have fallen out of favour before being recalled in place of Bailey Williams.

His addition should bolster the Bulldogs' backline after Fremantle topped 100 points in a stunning upset win over GWS last week.

Gun recruits Jesse Hogan and Rory Lobb played key roles, Michael Walters and Brandon Matera combined for seven goals and perpetual tease Matt Taberner snared three majors and 13 marks in arguably his best AFL performance.

"They were impressive last week," Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge told reporters.

"In all of their games they've kept their opposition to minimal scores. So they're defending pretty well. I think they've got a good balance of speed and grunt across the ground and obviously some of those forwards are starting to show up."

Trengove will also be deployed to support 21-year-old project tall Tim English, who has had a baptism of fire in the lead ruck role.

The 205cm English has played well around the ground but copped a physical battering from his more experienced opponents.

"Early in the year we didn't feel like the 50-50 ruck thing was working for us so we went a different way," Beveridge said.

"Now we feel like we need at least one more tall in to support either end and to give Tim a chop out as well.

"I think you'll see some change where players are playing forward and back to make sure we galvanise our defence a little bit."

With the Dogs 2-3 after lowering their colours to Carlton last week, Beveridge has challenged his midfielders to meet the challenge posed by Fremantle bulls Nat Fyfe and 300-gamer David Mundy.

"(We need to replicate) the way we started the year with our inside mids and some of the dominance we were able to exert," Beveridge said.

"If we can get a foothold in there and compete really hard against the likes of Mundy and Fyfe and Walters and these types, that's going to give us a chance."

Australian Associated Press