THE Western Bulldogs’ have breathed some new life into their season, after holding off Sydney last night to record its second consecutive win.

Reflecting post-match, Bulldogs coach Tam Hyett said “it’s a pretty nice feeling” to have now won back-to-back matches.

“I was just told a stat; it’s our first win at the Whitten Oval in over 900 days,” she said. “2022 I think, so it was nice to get one on home soil, but yeah, really good feeling in the rooms.”

In the third quarter, Sydney had pinched a goal late to take back the lead, but Hyett said the messaging at three quarter time had not changed.

“We hadn’t changed our messaging, it’s just reinforcing it,” Hyett said.

“So, more around structure and we knew that if we were structurally sound, across all three lines, that that would give us a good opportunity to have some timing forward half.”

Alice Edmonds had a big role to fill last night after fellow ruck Jorja Borg went down early with a knee injury, with Hyett describing her efforts as “huge”.

“Borgie went down so early and then we were looking at having someone to give her a chop out, but [Edmonds said] I’ll go 100 per cent,” Hyett said. “She’s been huge probably the last couple of weeks, just her ability to turn up to each contest and 100 per cent game time, I think, the last two weeks.”

Hyett agreed that the structure the Bulldogs have around contests is becoming more and more sound as the season is progressing.

“It’s something that we worked on from day dot with preseason and it’s just going to be time,” she said. “So the longer the group plays together, I think the ability to trust and rely on each other to set up and things like that. So yeah, it’s just time and each week they’re getting better at that.”

Part of that structure is a return of Jessica Fitzgerald to the midfield, with the young star drawing plenty of praise from her coach.

“You’d like one of her across each line to be honest,” Hyett said. “She’s just a talented footballer. Has a really good now, so knows where to position herself and then she’s got quality with her skills. So it’s nice to have her coming out of the centre.“