Senior coach Luke Beveridge is hopeful his side’s first win of the 2022 season is right around the corner.

The Bulldogs suffered a two-goal defeat to Carlton on Thursday night, leaving them still on the hunt for a win after the opening two rounds.

Beveridge said while the result was frustrating, there were encouraging signs of the Bulldogs’ brand of footy.

“I was really enthused and proud of the way our boys – at the end of that second quarter when the chips were down a bit - steadied the game, and then we really came into the second half and created a lot of opportunities that were there for the taking,” Beveridge told media post-match.

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Luke Beveridge | 'Couldn't get a handle on it early'

Head Coach Luke Beveridge speaks to the media following the Round 2 loss to Carlton.

“We just couldn’t convert unfortunately. There’s some encouraging aspects, but it’s been sort of representative of how we’ve been playing – we’ve been playing well in patches.

“Carlton’s contest was better than ours early, and it’s something we need to tidy up and be better at. 

“Now we’ve just got to focus on Sydney, who beat us last year and were really impressive. They’ve got some energy in what they’re doing that we’ve got to take note of.

“There isn’t going to be any easy ones, but hopefully our first win is just around the corner.”

For the second week in a row, the Bulldogs lost the contested possession count, registering 123 - 161 against the Blues.

Beveridge said that, in addition to their set shot conversion rate, would be two areas of focus for their round three battle.

“It’s always a concern when you get beaten in that area. We would have evened up in the second half – and we definitely used the ball better other than the final piece of the puzzle with the conversion,” the coach explained.

“We’ve got to get better at that, inside and out. It’s two weeks in a row where we’ve been done and played two really good sides that we’ve lowered our colours to.

“It’s a shame – a lot of those shots in the last quarter were from a fair way out which isn’t ideal. There’s no doubt they were gettable, but we’ll continue to work on it.

“There was probably one or two in the third quarter that were really costly – we were really coming and one hit the post, and missed another from close range.

“To get within a sniff of a goal would’ve really been ideal but it wasn’t to be.”