Western Bulldogs forward Elaine Grigg and winger Jasmyn Smith believe the team’s off-season efforts are beginning to pay dividends this season.

The Bulldogs have started their 2026 campaign with three wins from four games, most recently accounting for the previously unbeaten Sydney Swans by 27 points.

“It was a really exciting win for us and showed a lot of maturity,” Elaine Grigg said on this week’s episode of Tagged on afl.com.au.

“It’s a great vibe around the Club at the moment.”

“This pre-season we went to work on our gameplan and how we wanted to play. It’s really come (together) at the start of this season which has been amazing.”

03:06

Roaming Greg | Round 4

Elaine Grigg roams the fan zone after the victory over Sydney at Mission Whitten Oval.

Smith shared a similar sentiment. 

“I feel like our first few weeks – besides the North Melbourne game – we had some nice wins but we knew we had so much more to give,” Smith said.

“I think we’ve really started to find our groove in this fourth game. It was a really exciting one.

03:52

AFLW R4 | All The Goals

Enjoy all the majors from our 27-point win over the Sydney Swans

“I think it’s also credit to a lot of our off-seasons as well. We always knew the style of play that we wanted to get to eventually, but in my first season at the Dogs (in 2024) we probably weren’t there yet.

“Now that we feel like we are there, we’re actually playing the style of footy we want to … we feel like we can put in a good effort across four quarters.”

Having established themselves as a strong contested and defensive side under coach Tam Hyett, the Dogs entered this campaign with the aim of adding a more offensive layer to their game - the results of which have been apparent in the opening stages of this season.

“We pride ourselves on contest and defence, and we knew if we were going to compete with those teams in the upper echelon of the ladder, we needed to be able to move the ball cleaner and better,” Hyett said post-match last Saturday.

07:01

Tam Hyett | Post Match (R4)

Watch Western Bulldogs’s press conference after round four’s match against Sydney

“We also knew we needed to finish off our work. Last year, we got a lot of looks (forward) but probably didn’t finish that. We just have to go back to the basics.

“I’m really proud that some of the stuff that we worked hard on in the pre-season and off-season, we are getting reward for today.”

The Bulldogs will next face Hawthorn at the Kennedy Community Centre in Dingley this Saturday from 1:05pm AEST.