IN the box seat to take their place in the Season 7 finals series, the Western Bulldogs were able to fire in the first of two crunch games in the final fortnight of the season. Barring a catastrophic Round 10 loss to Carlton, the Bulldogs have put themselves in an almost-certain top eight spot after a big win over West Coast on the weekend.

Extending their lead out to 19.6 per cent between eighth and the ninth placed Gold Coast Suns, the Bulldogs toppled West Coast at Mineral Resources Park by 32 points, 8.7 (55) to 3.5 (23) to ensure the Suns’ big percentage-boosting win over Carlton the night before was nullified. Western Bulldogs coach Nathan Burke said his side had “absolutely” kept tabs on the ladder and the must-win nature of the game, including needing percentage to stay in the box seat.

“I’m sure they’ve snuck a look at the ladder and now they’ve gone ‘okay Gold Coast won yesterday and now they’re even, what does that look like next week and all that sort of stuff’ so the idea being recognise it as a must-win,” Burke said.

“We have to win the game and then we have to create a blueprint of how we play important games and that’s why I was really happy with what they came up with in terms of our pressure the way we move the ball and when we do come up in important games hopefully over the next month we’ve got a blueprint we can work on. We didn’t shy away from the fact it was an important game, we relished it and got everything we needed to out of it which was great.”

Though it would take a couple of polarising results – including a heavy loss to Carlton – to be knocked out of the top eight, Burke said he was not going to risk anything and said the only guarantee was picking up the four points, but he said it was a relief to know the “ball’s in our court”.

“The last couple of years we were around about but in the end we were waiting for other teams to lose and trying to win ourselves and waiting for other teams to lose and it’s not a good position to be in,” Burke said. “The ball’s in our court, if we’re good enough to beat Carlton, then we’ll keep playing into November almost which is a funny thing to say in footy.”

The game was far from easy for the Bulldogs early though, with the Eagles holding the early ascendancy before the favourites regained control midway through the first quarter.

“I was a bit worried about the very first bounce, went forward and our defenders were three metres behind and their mids spread and we were three metres behind them, and I thought ‘oh that’s not what we wanted to do’,” Burke said.

“But to their credit around six-seven minutes they wrestled back that and realised hey that’s not how we want to play the game and changed it themselves which was good. Teams this stage of the year that aren’t going to make finals, they’re going to have a crack. Sometimes if they play with a bit of abandon and it comes off, you find yourself in these short games really chasing. I thought our defence to hang on particularly was great.”

Forward Kirsten McLeod was coming back from a long absence due to ongoing concussion issues, and playing her first game of the year, and unfortunately went down with an ankle injury early in the first term. Eagle Jessica Sedunary tackled McLeod landing on her ankle in the process, and the experienced Bulldog had to be helped from the field.

“Footy can be cruel, absolutely cruel,” Burke said. “She missed all of last season, she trained the whole preseason, she trained up until two weeks ago with the understanding that you’re probably not going to play, they’re not going to clear you to play. We actually sat her down and said ‘look you can keep training, there’s a five per cent chance that they’ll say okay’. She said ‘nah I’ll keep doing it’. There’s nothing worse than rocking up to footy training and not being in the team.

“On Tuesday we got the okay and as you can imagine everyone was just up in the air. But for her to go down in the very first contest, it’s just cruel. She’s off to hospital it’s the right end, it’s the ankle not the head so I’m sort of glad about that.”

Assuming the Bulldogs do indeed reach the finals series, Burke said they would not be making up the numbers. Since winning the 2018 flag, the blue, red and whites have not reached a finals series let alone a grand final, something that Burke was keen to change.

“We don’t shy away from the fact that we want to win grand finals. Even this year if we win next week and we play finals, it’s a whole new month of footy,” Burke said. “There’s some really good teams above, but on our best day I’m not scared of anyone, so you never know what might happen.

“Once we get in, I’m aiming to go all the way. There’s none of this ‘I’m hoping to win a final, let’s get finals experience’, they’re too hard to get into. The last time we won a grand final, we haven’t been in one since. They’re too hard to get into, but once we get in we’ll have a real crack.”