THE INJURY concerns affecting the Western Bulldogs tall forwards will force coach Luke Beveridge to employ a "quite different" attack against the Brisbane Lions at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

Key forward Travis Cloke's rib injury will see him join Stewart Crameri (hip), Jack Redpath (ACL) and Jordan Roughead (hamstring) on the sidelines, forcing the premiers to rely on a smaller set-up headlined by Jake Stringer and Toby McLean.

In better news, the club is confident versatile big man Tom Boyd will overcome concussion to face the Lions.

"We haven't really got any other talls available to come in, so our configuration down (forward) will be quite different to the way we've started the first four rounds," Beveridge said.

"Trav has been terrific at different stages, played extremely well against Sydney, so we'll miss him."

While Beveridge was optimistic Boyd would pass a fitness test later in the week, he said Crameri had suffered a fresh hip injury in the VFL on the weekend.

Boyd received delayed concussion from a head knock in the first quarter of the Good Friday clash with North Melbourne, while Crameri played only two quarters before his problematic hip "flared up" again.

"So we think (Tom is) going to be fine, but again he still needs to get through that cogstate test and our medical staff will need to clear him," Beveridge said.

"He's in a similar situation to (Liam Picken) last week, albeit he did come back on the ground Tom, where 'Picko' didn't.

"(Crameri's) got a bit of a hip flexor injury, so he'll be out this week and possibly the next two or three.

"He definitely won't play at any level this week. It's a fresh injury, he's had a little bit of a grumbly hip in recent times."

Beveridge was happy with the way premiership stars Caleb Daniel and Shane Biggs responded to their demotions to the VFL.

While he didn't go into detail about why the duo were axed, Beveridge forecast a swift return for the usually reliable playmakers.

"Yeah, they did (respond well to being dropped)," he said.

"They accepted that they needed to go back and just work on a couple of things and they did really well.

"They'll be considered this week."