THE WESTERN Bulldogs are not talking about finals, despite launching into a 'soft' period of their fixture on the back of a 72-point win against the Brisbane Lions on Saturday night.

The Bulldogs face St Kilda, Carlton and Gold Coast in their next three weeks and have the opportunity to re-enter the top eight after improving their record to 6-5.

Coach Luke Beveridge stressed he hadn't been completely satisfied on Saturday night after the Lions cut the margin to just nine points early in the third quarter.

The Bulldogs went on to finish with their best quarter of the season, kicking 9.3 in the final term and finishing with their highest score – 22.14 (146) – since round 22, 2011.

WATCH: Luke Beveridge's full press conference here

"We should be really satisfied, but we should be fussy because we want to be better," Beveridge said.

"As much as the scoreboard tells us it was a convincing win, it just didn't feel that way throughout the course of the night.

"We had a discussion around where our vulnerabilities are and why Brisbane were still in the game.

"We're not talking about it (finals), there's just too many games up ahead."

The Bulldogs moved up to ninth spot on the ladder on Saturday night and can't finish the round any lower than tenth, which was around where the team deserved to sit, Beveridge said.

His biggest concern out of the match was poor ball use, which let the Brisbane Lions stay in the match during the first half.

"That's always the last piece of the puzzle with any team, to make sure you're efficient, you're effective and you can connect with your forwards and kick to their advantage," the coach said. "I just felt at times we didn't do that.

"It wasn't until Jake Stringer came out of a stoppage or two and actually kicked it to our forwards and we marked it that we felt like we were starting to get back on track.

"Then it opened up for us in the last quarter."

Stringer, who was able to play on after suffering stomach pain in the last quarter, was a star on Saturday night with five goals, but Beveridge played down the 21-year-old's performance.


He said the Bulldogs needed to see a balance between Stringer's brilliance and the team aspects of his play.

"He's continually trying to strike a balance there," Beveridge said.

"Tonight we saw his brilliance, it doesn't necessarily mean he had the exact balance we need with that reliable part of our team defence.

"He's growing all the time as a young player. It was another important night for him."