Luke Beveridge has lauded the resilience of his players after the Western Bulldogs rebounded superbly for a crucial upset win over Carlton.

Stung by last weekend's loss to Port Adelaide, the Bulldogs had a solid spread of contributors in the Saturday twilight game at Marvel Stadium and won 14.16 (100) to 12.14 (86).

It keeps the Dogs in the top-eight conversation ahead of next week's massive clash in Geelong against the Cats.

Jamarra Ugle-Hagan was best afield and kicked four goals, as did Rhylee West, while Beveridge heaped praise on Bailey Dale for his game off half-back.

Crucially, the Dogs kicked four goals to one from centre bounces, which proved the difference.

"We're pretty moved by that one - obviously coming out of last week, when you can throw up all adjectives to describe what it was and what it wasn't," Beveridge said.

'You don't want the extreme that we saw last week, where we really troughed. We don't want that outlier.

"It's a big one for us in the scheme of the season and everything hangs in the balance, you make your choices."

Asked about next week, Beveridge smiled ruefully and said: "They don't shrink, the challenges."

Bulldogs defenders Rory Lobb and Buku Khamis were outstanding.

Indeed, a Bulldogs player could consider himself hard-done-by if not mentioned in Beveridge's post-game media conference, with the coach keen to praise all of them.

Significantly, for all of Cripps' valour, his Bulldogs counterpart Marcus Bontempelli was solid without proving the difference - as he so often does when the Dogs win.

The Bulldogs were in big trouble early, kicking 0.7 for the first term, but Beveridge said the players stuck to their guns and steadily put the game on their terms.

Midfielder Adam Treloar was a late withdrawal with calf tightness, while Carlton's Zac Williams was forced out of the game in the second term with a hamstring injury.