A 49-point win over North Melbourne saw the Western Bulldogs register their fourth win in a row at a critical point in the season. 

However, it wasn't as smooth sailing as Senior Coach Luke Beveridge would have liked. 

Here's what he had to say following the game.

On the game and the challenge from North: 

“I never felt comfortable.

“I thought North came pretty hard. Obviously their efficiencies were too high with how many goals they were scoring from their opportunities.

“Credit to our lads, they were able to stabilise. They couldn’t gap them, though, until really late in the game.

“They had some misfortune, losing Luke, and they lost their ruckman in the last quarter on top of all the injuries they had on top of that.

“It was a big night for the North Melbourne Football Club with their history and celebrating 100 years in the comp. Celebrating their ’75 Premiership Team 50-year anniversary.

“It was high emotion and we could see that in their game.

“I think, like last week against Sydney where we had a lead and then Sydney carved it up and got in front, I just loved the way we steadied last week and remained positive and composed and were able to come away with the points last week.

“Obviously, a different margin in the end tonight but similar circumstances where they were up on the scoreboard early on a big night and a critical game for us.

“Both teams will come away with things that they can work on, as usual.

“We had a really good front-half turnover game—just over 30 of those for 10 goals; that’s a great total. It means our pressure was okay, forced them into error and we were able to score.

“But the times they did get through, they virtually scored every time. The Larkey threat loomed large and I loved the fact that Lobby was able to go there and play it a bit differently.

“We were reasonably stable but there was a bit going on in the game.

“I imagine once again that the purists wouldn’t have minded the scoring but, as coaches, we like to minimise it a little bit more.”

On Ed Richards injury: 

“I thought it was going to be worse than what it seems to be.

“It seems like a minor AC joint injury, which you can always play with.

“That’s some good fortune for us.”

On Libba, Bont and contribution of the leaders:

“The thing about Libba and, we probably have to include the captain in this as well, he and Marcus—on a night when the opposition, you play for keeps every week, but when you’re playing for the bloodlines and the history of your footy club—there’s a bit more emotion to it.

“Our designated leaders were just outstanding and it’s not just the contested possessions and the quantities of disposals.

“I don’t pay too much attention to the pressure points side of it. But both Marcus and Tom had enough for two games each. It’s just enormous.

“Ten tackles each, when we really needed our teammates to stand up, they just led the way. They led the charge.

“Tom—that just optimises what he’s about. I’m glad you mentioned it. If we were going to individualise on his 250th game, Tommy, he was outstanding.

“The skipper on his 251st was bloody good as well.”

On Naughty:

“I think he gets critiqued fairly hard. It’s not always about the goals kicked.

“We played Geelong down there and he was in our best three players. He only kicked three goals but he was outstanding.

“The next week he had a down game and he just gets chewed up.

“Just take it easy. It’s a hard position to play—you can’t shoot the lights out every week.

“No doubt that he’s probably taken his marks; he was probably dropping a few earlier in the year. He’s obviously converting reasonably well; he’s having a pretty steady year for us.

“On a night where maybe things weren’t rolling for Sam, Naughts was getting on the end of it and capitalising on some of our transitions.

“He’s been going pretty well. He’s worked his way through it with Matty Spangher and the forwards. He’s a difficult match-up.”

On the upcoming game against Adelaide:

“We’ve had a pretty productive year.

“These teams that have beaten us who are above us, it hasn’t been by much.

“If you go back and look at those games and even the Sydney game with us—even though Sydney are below us, they brought a gamestyle and approach to it which I think would stack up against any team in the competition.

“Earlier in the year, those games were going the other way. Acknowledge that these are going to be tests. Big tests against very good sides. I could see Adelaide coming at the end of last year—it’s no surprise to us with their personnel and the experienced acquisitions that came over from other clubs at the end of last year. It’s no surprise that they are where they are.

“Last time we played them in Adelaide, they jumped us and they took control and we were a bit second-rate last year against them.

“Fair bit to play for every week and we’ll relish the challenge.

“We’ve got to own up to the fact that we haven’t beaten anyone above us.

“We’re in the mix but there are some opportunities on the stretch to keep winning.

“We need to keep winning to capitalise on our opportunity. The difference between one of the better sides and being in that mid-tier pack is winning those close ones against the more formidable opponents.

“If you say ‘do you need a scalp?’, the short answer is that we need a scalp to finish higher up on the ladder.

“We need scalps to finish higher up on the ladder—we can’t back away from that.”

On Bailey Dale and Bailey Williams' game: 

“Bailey is a high defender and sometimes, with those defensive-type forward roles, it can destabilise your whole back end and your layers are different.

“Putting Bailey Williams back there—who is a different back-end role player—creates a different layer system.

“It wasn’t necessarily to put Bailey Dale in different positions; it was to stabilise our back seven.

“‘Truck’ Williams has been outstanding; we had to send him back to the wing tonight because we lost Sam Davidson before the game.

“Then, obviously, we made an adjustment after that. I thought that Truck really helped stabilise that back end. Bailey ‘Digger’ Dale had a different game.

“It wasn’t a prolific, high-possession game, so the SuperCoach community will be hard on me again.

“In the end, I thought it worked for us, definitely behind the ball.”