Western Bulldogs head coach Nathan Burke says Saturdays’ 32-point win over West Coast will act as a blueprint for his side moving forward.

The Bulldogs took one step closer to securing their first finals berth since the 2018 flag, maintaining the one-game buffer between themselves in eighth place and Gold Coast in ninth.

“We spoke about this being an important game - we haven’t played in a lot of important games, so the idea was let’s recognise this as a must-win,” Burke told media post-match.

“We had to win this game. We didn’t shy away from the fact that it’s an important game - we really relished it, and got everything we needed to out of it which is great.

“I was really happy with what they came up with, in terms of our pressure and how we moved the ball.

“When we do come up with important games hopefully over the next month, we’ve got a blueprint that we can work from.”

The Bulldogs will launch the final round of the season against Carlton on Friday night at IKON Park – a ground familiar to them this season with the VU Whitten Oval redevelopment works.

Burke is looking forward to being in control of their own destiny – rather than needing to rely on other results to go their way.

“The last couple of years, we were ‘around about’ (in the mix for finals), but in the end we were waiting for other teams to lose. That’s not a good position to be in,” he said.

“The ball is in our court this time, so if we’re good enough to beat Carlton then we get to keep playing.”