Having served a one-game suspension for rough conduct, Hunter will slot back in for Friday night's clash with Carlton at Etihad Stadium, while Williams returns from an ear infection.

Defender Hayden Crozier is also back, having recovered from a knee injury.

Matthew Kennedy and Caleb Marchbank will return for the Blues, who remain without ruckman Matthew Kreuzer (groin) and swingman Jacob Weitering (quad).

Coach Luke Beveridge admits the Dogs badly need reinforcements after a dreadful 54-point loss to the Dockers in which they consistently turned the ball over by foot.

"(Hunter and Williams) were probably almost our two best players the previous two weeks so we missed them a little bit," he said on Thursday.

"There'll be a few boys who make way.

"Hopefully the boys are on top of their game and a hell of a lot better than we were last week. It was a bit of a head-scratcher to see it unfold like that.

"I don't think we can be that bad again."

Lukas Webb and Mitch Honeychurch were dropped and Tory Dickson was unavailable due to injury.

After showing solid fight during a narrow loss to Sydney, the Dogs took a major step backwards against the Dockers and now sit 16th on the ladder with a 1-4 record.

Bottom-placed Carlton are yet to taste victory but showed their ability to suffocate opponents with their defensive set-up during last week's 10-point loss to West Coast.

"I think the way that they set up against West Coast was actually different to what they'd done previously in that they dropped a number back and tried to use that as an outlet when they won the footy back," Beveridge said.

"We're not sure what we'll get. We're not sure whether they'll want to drop someone back or if they'll want to take someone up to the stoppage ... we'll plan for both."

Australian Associated Press