The Western Bulldogs win over St.Kilda on the weekend was the Club’s best performance of the season so far according to defender Matthew Boyd.

It also signalled the end of one of the quirkier stats going around; it was the first time the Club had won without Boyd in the line-up since Luke Beveridge took over as coach in November, 2014.

“I was pretty rapt with how we played, it was actually the best game we played for the year so far, it was a really good four quarter performance,” he told RSN Radio on Tuesday morning.

“They probably dominated the game in the first twenty minutes but we wrestled back momentum late in that first quarter, and from there we looked really good.”

The game was unusual for its final margin, the Dogs’ largest of 2017.

The Bulldogs average winning margin has been 20 points this season, while the average loss is just 12 points, the equal lowest in the competition.

If that wasn’t a good enough indicator of how tight things have been, the Dogs sit in fourth place going into the bye, despite only leading in 38% of total game time so far. 

Only Carlton, Brisbane and Fremantle have lead for less time.

But Boyd says the Dogs have a game plan built to grind out a close contest.

“We like playing in grinds, that’s what we’ve built our brand on that last couple of years.  The fact that we’re able to get that contested ball game going, get numbers around the footy.

“[The weekend] was a bit of a grind but we were able to use the ball a bit more freely once we burst that inner bubble we’re able to get some score on the board. 

“We kept a team to less than 50 points, so that was pretty impressive.”

The Bulldogs have the bye this week, and will face Sydney on Thursday, June 8.