The pressure was on the Dogs to perform against a top-eight team and, in his 250th game as coach, Luke Beveridge's team responded.

Leading from siren-to-siren, the Bulldogs put on a masterclass to record an 88-point win over the Giants to keep their finals dreams well-and-truly alive. 

Here's what Bevo had to say following the win. 

On the Bulldogs breaking the Club membership record:

“I just want to express how grateful we are to all of our members.

"Rusted-on, red, white and blue people from far across the land, thank you for your great support.

"You make us all feel extremely good about ourselves, and we’re very grateful. So thank you.”

On the team performance:

“Nothing to be unhappy about tonight.

"If I had asked you how you’d describe our players, our team, our club throughout the course of the year, I think we’ve been pretty honest.

"Our players keep fronting up and giving their all. We understand the criticism around not necessarily being able to edge our way further up the ladder and beat teams above us. We get that.

"We’ve just got to own all of that. Along the way, there hasn’t been a game where we haven’t been really thankful that the players put in, did their best and tried to get everything out of themselves. Tonight was another one where the application was there right across the 23 players.

"The cold, hard fact remains that we need to keep winning. It’s one down and a handful to go.”

On the forward line:

“They’re big threats, aren’t they?

"We were getting the ball in and giving our key forwards looks - the likes of Lachie McNeil, Caleb Poulter and Rhyley West creating down there.

"They’re pretty hard to contend with.

"We thought we got some rewards because the Giants were concerned about our key forwards. That opened up some things for other players.”

On team defence:

“[Against Adelaide], our tackling, our pressure game, and how we dealt with Adelaide’s pressure wasn’t anywhere near the standard we’d like.

"Then we turned up to the Gabba and we were pretty good in that aspect. Obviously, we came late against the Lions and couldn’t quite get there. But that was an example of what I was saying earlier about the honesty and perseverance in our games.

"We’ve fallen short, but we definitely haven’t turned up our toes.

"To the players’ credit, on the back of those two games against teams who are definitely going to be playing finals, we came out empty-handed and feeling a bit of a void.

"To reload, play pretty well the last couple of weeks, and get momentum going again has been important.”

On the build-up to the game and the finals-like feeling:

“I couldn’t do that. We needed to strike a balance and make sure the players played with freedom.

"It’s critical to remind ourselves of what our strengths have been. One of those is our ability to hit the scoreboard.

"That’s through a number of factors: stoppage, possession, and our turnover game has improved.

"We’ve let ourselves down in some of the games against flightier oppositions with turnovers in our back half that gave momentum back to teams we shouldn’t have given it to.

"Tonight was a night where we didn’t have any blatant turnovers in our back half, so we were quite measured and composed with the ball. We struck a balance.

"We definitely walked out with an edge, understanding a bit of the history between the two teams. That meant the players were ready from the start.”

On goals from turnovers:

“I think our back six or seven have been beaten up a little with the critique of them, the emerging players, and the evolution of that line alone.

"We all take ownership of that because, ultimately, you need your midfield group and your forward group to contribute to your defensive system.

"I think everyone stepped that up a little bit. There are some levers we’re pulling to make sure we tighten it up. Some of that is simply decision-making off the ball and how we value that phase of the game.

"I think tonight we were pretty good at it. It was an improvement to keep a pretty threatening forward line to that score, and also to limit our exposure by keeping them out of their 50.

"It’s a pretty good way to play if you can do it.”

On the contested possession differential:

“Sometimes, where angels fear to tread, you can’t second-guess yourself in this game.

"Not that we have throughout the course of the year, but I felt any disputed ball that needed to be won showed great commitment at ground level and in the air.

"We gave away some free kicks in the air as the game went on, but there was no question that our players were absolutely committed to that big challenge in the game, which never goes away.”

On player contribution:

“It’s a really difficult night to individualise.

"These lads who don’t necessarily get the acknowledgement or have the notoriety that others do - it was pretty solid right down the board.

"You could pick your way through our back six or seven. The boys will hopefully sleep pretty content tonight knowing they made solid contributions.”

On the next three weeks:

“Similar to tonight, it’s that cliché about just the next opponent.

"We’ve got Melbourne at the ‘G on a Sunday, which is a fair way away now. We’ve got a lot of time to think about it, which is not always a good thing.

"The plus is that we get a chance to train and maybe refine one or two things again.

"They’re still a very dangerous team, so we’ve got to be ready for that one. We really don’t look much further.”