THE WESTERN Bulldogs are keen to open contract talks with a star key-position trio featuring Tim English, Aaron Naughton and Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, as well as midfielder Bailey Smith, over the coming summer.

The important quartet are all set to come out of contract at the end of next season, though the Bulldogs are hopeful of getting on the front-food ahead of time and beginning discussions to extend the four players as soon as possible.

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English is set to be among the League's most in-demand free agents next season after earning his first All-Australian blazer this year, while Naughton and Ugle-Hagan have established themselves as two of the game's best young key forwards.

Smith has already been linked to rival clubs, despite having one year remaining on his current deal, though his manager Paul Connors quashed speculation last week when he told AFL.com.au's trade and draft show Gettable that "he'll be at the Bulldogs" in 2024.

Speaking on Gettable earlier this week, Bulldogs list and recruiting manager Sam Power revealed that negotiations with all four players could kick off shortly and said the Dogs were confident they saw their future at the Whitten Oval.

"Ideally as early as possible," Power told Gettable.

"They're all really enjoying the club, so they're in a really good space. Sooner rather than later, you'd love to get on those. (But) you're always talking to their management and having ongoing conversations.

"The CBA negotiations are probably holding up a lot of things across the industry at the moment. Once that drops, it gives a bit more clarity to hopefully progress conversations with those guys.

"The bottom line from our end, and everything they're communicating to us, is that they're really happy. They see where the club is going and they think it's a bright future."

The Bulldogs are set for another busy Trade Period, with Power revealing the club will target additional midfield depth after bringing through a series of key-position prospects at the draft recently.

The club has used first-round picks to recruit Ugle-Hagan (pick No.1 in 2020), Sam Darcy (pick No.2 in 2021) and Jedd Busslinger (pick No.13 in 2022) in the last three seasons, while it has 200cm father-son prospect Jordan Croft coming through the system this year.

"Given we've brought in some young key-position (players) over the last couple of years, and matching bids with Jamarra and Sam, has meant that we've picked early and picked late," Power said.

"It's obviously fantastic bringing those guys in, but we have paid maximum for them with where those bids came. We haven't had access to certain aspects or certain parts of the draft.

"It's definitely a focus, not necessarily for inside midfielders or anything like that. But we're aware that our midfield – although it's pretty good still – there's some guys in the latter stages of their career and we need to replenish that, and we need to look at more attributes with run and speed around the square as well."