It may not always be pretty to watch but veteran midfielder Matthew Boyd is more than comfortable playing out a game of football in the trenches – in close and contested.

The former captain is confident the Bulldogs are making progress from last season, particularly in how competitive they have been week in, week out but is realistic about where the team stands.

“I think we’ve still got a fair way to go and a fair bit of improvement,” Boyd told 3AW Football.

“I guess the positive sign for this year is take out the West Coast game in round one, we’ve been in every game that we’ve played in and been in games for a lot longer periods of time than we were last year.

“We’re giving ourselves a chance to win, we’ve just got to seize the moment, seize the opportunity when it presents itself and start winning a few of those closer games.”

Two of the Bulldogs losses have been decided within two goals and Boyd is hopeful with more maturity his teammates can begin to stand up in the closely contested games.

While the Club’s league-wide ranking in contested possessions has dropped from 2013, the defensive pressure from the Bulldogs has visibly lifted and will continue to be a focus this season.

“We are doing pretty well in and around the stoppages and the clearances we are probably lacking a little bit with our loose ball gets and getting to the next contest,” he said.

“So that is an area we are going to try to address for the remainder of the season.”