DUAL premiership coach Malcolm Blight has urged the injury-hit Western Bulldogs to seek inspiration from his Adelaide and Geelong sides as they face mission impossible in trying to knock off Collingwood in Saturday night’s qualifying final.

Already without injured Brownlow medallist Adam Cooney, defender Dale Morris and back-up ruckman Jordan Roughead, the Bulldogs are expected to also face the ladder-leading Magpies without skipper Brad Johnson and key on-baller Ryan Griffen.

The Bulldogs' price continue to drift with the bookies, but Blight said external views would not matter provided the team had self-belief come Saturday.

Blight pointed to the Cats’ stunning 33-point win over premiership favourite Carlton in the 1994 semi-final at Waverley Park as evidence of what undermanned sides are capable of.

The Cats were without four All Australians – Paul Coach, Mark Bairstow, Garry Hocking and Michael Mansfield – yet conjured one of their famous wins, bankrolled by six goals from Gary Ablett, 31 possessions from Liam Pickering and 24 from teenager Aaron Lord in arguably his best game as a Cat.

Blight this week recalled his motivational pre-match address that helped inspire victory.

“It lasted about 30 seconds to a minute before the game. I was pretty pumped up, and I know the players were,” he said.

“I said: 'What will it be like when you put your head on the pillow tonight having beaten the top team with all these blokes out? Whatever you do in football from hereon in, don’t ever let it be said whether we win or lose from here on, that you didn’t give it everything',” he said.

“The theme was - this should go down in history as one of the club’s greatest wins, other than the obvious, I think they (Geelong) had five premierships at the time.

“I said: ‘If we can overcome this, who knows what is going to happen from there’?”

That victory consigned the Blues to a straight-sets exit from the finals, while falling amid an unforgettable month for the Cats. Billy Brownless had snatched a qualifying-final victory a week earlier over the Dogs with a goal after the siren, while a week later Leigh Tudor’s wobbly pass to Gary Ablett – and subsequent goal – also snatched an unforgettable preliminary-final win over North Melbourne.

“The trick is to find that group dynamic that actually wants to make you keep trying forever,” Blight said.

“It’s a bit about coaching, it’s a bit about culture, it’s a bit about injuries.

“We had a reunion last year at Geelong, called the Blight years. We had about 50 blokes there. It was really nice ... I said: ‘Don’t ever forget what happened in ’94. Never, ever shirk what that team did, what the club did. Against all the odds, we made a grand final that we weren’t entitled to even get close to’.”

Blight also pointed to his Crows’ team of ’97 that claimed the club’s maiden premiership as reason why the Bulldogs should have confidence.

Missing three of their premier players – Tony Modra, the Coleman medallist that year who hurt his knee in the preliminary final, Mark Ricciuto and Peter Vardy – the Crows weren’t expected to defeat St Kilda in the grand final.

“The ’97 premiership team with Adelaide, we had three of our best players out – two All Australians and Peter Vardy,” he said.

“Vardy in the following year kicked six goals in the impossible win over the Swans to go on and eventually win it (the premiership).

“Ricciuto was actually winning our best and fairest at the time but (Andrew) McLeod overtook him in the finals series.

“You had your leading goal-kicker, your best on-baller and probably your best half-forward flanker, who used to always a kick a goal that was exciting, out.

“It’s always going to be harder (for the Bulldogs) but if everyone plays to their ability in the team, no matter who is in the team, and the other team doesn't, you can still win.”

The typically modest Blight failed to mention many of the tactical moves that helped those Geelong and Adelaide sides to victory, although a surprise, and perhaps game-defining decision, to have Lord shadow Blues’ tagger Matthew Hogg in that ’94 semi-final remains vivid in his memory.

It goes without saying the decision to plonk Darren Jarman at full-forward in that ’97 grand final was a masterstroke.

“And sometimes you get lucky,” Blight said with a laugh.

The Bulldogs hope they do as well.