Western Bulldogs AFLW coach Paul Groves says his charges are showing positive signs despite his side's narrow loss to Carlton at Ikon Park on Saturday.
The Bulldogs ultimately went down by a goal but, after Carlton's Darcy Vescio kicked the first goal of the final quarter to give the Blues a game-high lead of 25 points, the Dogs stormed home to kick the last three goals of the match and fall only six points short in the highest-scoring encounter of the AFLW season so far.
Groves saw much to like in that final quarter.
"We can see what we're trying to do and come out really positively from it," he said.
"We've started to see some signs from our team that we've got the ability amongst the group and I think that confidence switch sort of just got flicked and we were able to play some good attacking footy.
"It was probably a good game to watch for a spectator - open, pretty free flowing and goals were kicked."
Groves lamented lapses for small periods that cost the Bulldogs dearly, as they had done in the side's three previous losses, but was full of praise for the way the team recovered from those to make a charge in the final quarter in trying conditions.
"A few lapses in that third really hurt but our girls to their credit were amazing in that last quarter to really dig deep [on a] hot day and [against] a quality opposition."
The coach said that his team had done many things right throughout the season so far, a fact borne out by side's number two ranking for scoring opportunities. More accurate shooting for goal and eradicating the lapses would go a long way towards ensuring success for the Bulldogs.
"Adelaide had 49 shots on goal going into [today]. We had 46 and kicked 15.31. That's a frustration. It's a tricky one as a coach. Do you go and do heaps of goal kicking, which then puts it in their head that they're not kicking [well] or do you just let that [improve] naturally and get them confident doing it? That's the juggling act.
"We were third for inside 50s going into this game. 46 shots - the next one was Melbourne on 39. We're playing the game alright, we're just having a few lapses. Speaking to the girls, it's all about [rectifying] the few lapses we have and not coughing up the goals."
Groves remains confident that the Bulldogs have all the ingredients for success in place.
"We're happy with our list, we just haven't been able to get the results there. A couple of injuries obviously don't help. We're confident we're heading the right way with that."
The Bulldogs will travel to Brendale, north of Brisbane, to take on the undefeated Lions on Saturday morning.
