WESTERN Bulldogs midfielder Matthew Boyd said Saturday's win over Fremantle further highlighted the courage of teammates Brad Johnson and Lindsay Gilbee.

Johnson broke the Dogs' club record with his 342nd game on Saturday, while Gilbee lined up despite the passing of his father, Lawrie, late on Friday night.

Boyd, 26, said both circumstances had given the Bulldogs a huge amount to play for in the lead-up to the game.

"There were a couple of reasons to win today. Emotions were running pretty high before the game, so it was just a challenge to not get too emotional about either situation," Boyd said after the 31-point win.

"It was a challenge, but it just shows how courageous Lindsay is to be able to come out and do the job he did for us.

"We're pretty proud of him."

Boyd learned of Lawrie Gilbee's death on Friday night. He had lost a short fight against an aggressive form of cancer diagnosed mid-season.

He said his teammates were expecting Gilbee to miss the match, and were buoyed by his bravery that boiled over into an outpouring of emotion after the siren.

"Family comes first, and if he felt like he couldn't play, that would have been fine," Boyd said.

"It was great to have him out there and all the boys got behind him.

"It's a tough situation to come out because there's a lot of pressure and you've got to play your heart out, and he did really well."

Boyd also paid tribute to the heroics of Johnson, who added another achievement to his decorated career.

"Johnno has been brave for 342 games," he said.

"His ability to play with injury just makes him even better. Behind the scenes, people just don't see what he goes through to get his body right, and to play 342 games is a fair effort."

Boyd said it was encouraging to see the Dogs kick 17 goals despite the absence of forwards Shaun Higgins (hamstring), Daniel Giansiracusa (knee), Robert Murphy (hamstring) and Scott Welsh (ankle).

He said the performances of Jason Akermanis (five goals) and Brennan Stack (four in his second game) showed the side's versatility.

"The beauty of our side is someone will pop up when we don't have our key forwards kicking goals," he said.

"For 'Stacky', it was fantastic for him to come into the side and play with that much confidence and go for his marks.

"For 'Aker', it's just reward for hard work. He does a lot of work inside 50, and he got rewarded for it today."

Boyd agreed the display had not been the Dogs' best this season, but had given them plenty of food for thought.

"We just need to keep winning if we want to cement that top four spot," he said.

"Sometimes you win ugly and today was one of those days. We'll take it, and we'll take the positives, and we'll look for areas of improvement.

"That's all we can do and move on to next week."