Senior coach Luke Beveridge addressed media following the Bulldogs’ eight-point win over Carlton.

Here are the key takeaways.

On the result:

“It’s pretty satisfying. We weren’t doing a hell of a lot wrong – we just obviously couldn’t kick a goal in that first quarter, but even at half time we came in and six of their seven goals were from areas that we'd been reasonably good at.

"I thought the boys made some good adjustments and the coaches were really good with their instructions and their collaboration. Just to persevere through it and somehow find a way and nudge ahead, but then it's deflating giving it back. It's a pretty satisfying night for everyone.”

On the team:

“We all like to see the good in people and see the promise in your players. You hope that you see them improve and have some growth week-to-week. That doesn’t always come to fruition but I think it really did tonight.

“When you look across the board at the 23 lads who played in our team – and I think Carlton were the same in terms of that even spread of contributors – there were probably a couple of our lads who had some moments where they maybe weren’t at their best, but have to be factored in helping us get across the line.

“Some of our boys who haven’t played a lot of footy showed some really encouraging signs.”

On Sam Davidson:

“He’s definitely one of those. He had a really influential game on that wing.

“This is probably the third time I’ve said it...but as he walked in I said ‘you’re playing like Peter Matera’. I thought he probably doesn’t even know who that is, but he really did. He stood out in his third game.

“Sometimes you can’t tell, but I processed that as the game went on that he was really having a night.

“Again, it was really encouraging for Sam, but definitely for us that we’ve really found a player there.”

On the team’s depth:

“If you think about our lead-in from when we played Essendon in the pre-season – we played 33 players in that main game because we wanted to reward the players who’d had pretty solid pre-seasons with at least half a game of senior footy.

“Then we went to Launceston and had more of a dress rehearsal. We played pretty well against Hawthorn, and so we thought we had a little bit of momentum.

“I’m not greatly surprised – you lose players of the ilk like Marcus and Cody, and a few others but ultimately there’s some real promise in our group.

“I know the talk out of last week was ‘you should be proud’ – yes to a degree, but we wanted to win that game. That’s the way we’ve got to think otherwise we don’t end up being a chance of getting a look at where we want to go.”

On Aaron Naughton:

“He was having a difficult night. Probably uncharacteristically, we didn’t kick it to his advantage but he lost a couple of 1v1s in open field that he’d usually at least halve.

“For him to hang in there for us and kick what was a pretty difficult goal, was crucial in the outcome.

“He’s one – just talking about moments – that took his, and his teammates were all buoyed by it.”

On Tom Liberatore:

“With his in-and-under stuff and his sleight of hand – he’s like a magician.

“Our midfield group...after half time we made some adjustments and started to at least not let (Carlton) out the front, and started to go better in that arm wrestle.

“Libba just did what he does – he just continues to be hard-nosed and drove to the line. He’s pretty proud of his teammates tonight.”

On Buku Khamis and James O’Donnell:

“Buku has been with us for a while, but hasn’t played a lot of AFL footy. He might just be maturing as he gets into his later 20s.

“I thought he was very, very good last week, and tonight he, Liam and Rory as the three key backs were quite outstanding. That’s really promising for us.

“Buku’s initial challenges were the four-quarter aspects and getting his fitness and strength up to a level. Now that he’s matured, he’s sort of in that sweet spot and we’re starting to see it at AFL level. He’s an undersized key back, but he’s extremely athletic and really gets off the ground. He was terrific.

“James played an important role – he was a sort of third wheel for Sam and Aaron, but it was great to see him kick that last goal. He competed as hard as he could all night.

“They were crucial at the end of the game those two lads.”