WITH a spot in the finals now all-but guaranteed, the Western Bulldogs have their sights set on a top-four spot, says coach Rodney Eade.

The Dogs fought back to see off a determined Collingwood outfit at Telstra Dome on Sunday. The win is the side's 11th of the season and lifts it to second spot on the ladder, two points behind leader Geelong.

 “I think as a club we’ve got to aim high and that’s what good teams do,” Eade said after the match.

“I think we’ve won against good sides this year and we’ve also won from a lot of different situations, whether it’s been from behind, or teams have come at us while we’ve been in front, or we’re favourites, or the underdogs, or whatever the case may be.

“I think the group has responded very well and now that the group is assured a spot in the finals, we’ve got to aim for the top four.”

The Dogs were forced away from their usual fluent game style by the hard-at-it Pies, and Eade praised the resilience of his players, saying it was important that his team learned to combat whatever is thrown at them.

“Collingwood are a tough side, to be able to hang in there and be able to forge ahead like we did, I think we got about three [goals] up at one stage, I think was a fair credit to the resolve of the group,” Eade said.

“Full credit to Collingwood, they were fantastic, their pressure was terrific and they out-worked us, I thought, for most of the game, but to be able to win tough, win a fairly tough game [was good].

“I thought our skills were down today, we turned the ball over more than we should and we didn’t play our normal way with our normal energy especially in the first half, but not every game is going to be the same.

“Opponents are going to try and do different things with different match-ups and different types of pressure. That’s what we’ve got to cope with and I thought we coped with it reasonably well.”

The Dogs led by just six points with five minutes to play despite Anthony Rocca and Ben Reid spending most of the second half on the bench injured. Eade said he had instructed his side to maximise their running game during the half-time break to exploit the Pies' losses.

“I think you could probably say it did [affect the match]," he said. "I mean, we had Tommy [Williams] out, but that limits their flexibility.

“But in the end they kicked the last two goals, so they’ve had plenty of run in the end and full credit to them, I think they did a terrific job. The two guys they lost were taller players, but that can certainly limit you there’s no doubt.”