Western Bulldogs senior coach Luke Beveridge says that despite the frustration of Saturday’s narrow loss to North Melbourne, there were plenty of positive signs shown by the Dogs’ young brigade.

The Bulldogs conceded a goal with less than 30 seconds on the clock against the Kangaroos, after leading for the majority of the contest.

“My animation afterwards in discussion with the players was centred around being organised and sort of risk managing that last part of the game where we held a slender margin and we really should have been able to ice the game,” Beveridge told westernbulldogs.com.au.

“Obviously we’re kicking ourselves and we were all extremely disappointed, but I felt it was important that we left Etihad Stadium understanding what actually happened.  Sometimes in the heat of the moment the players actually aren’t sure what transpired.”

Beveridge said despite the loss, they must reflect on the positives.

“If you had said to us at the start of the night that you’d get five goals (combined) out of Billy Gowers and Bailey Williams playing through the midfield – we would’ve taken it,” he said.

“It’s fantastic that those two were able to take up those roles and play a really important part in the game.

“Marcus Adams coming back from a long layoff was outstanding, we thought.  Hayden Crozier was in particular extremely good and really set us up in that first half.

“Roarke is still finding his way, he had some important involvements.  Ed Richards and Patty Lipinski playing on the wings as young players, they’re feeling their way through it and had some really important involvements.

“We made some decisions structurally which worked for us.  It meant that Zaine Cordy and Aaron Naughton played forward, and both of those boys took up the task.”

Beveridge said that Friday night’s game against Geelong presents another opportunity for the side to prove themselves.

“We talked about the perception outside.  Internally we still think anything is possible and we can beat anyone and we’re going to stick to that.

“It doesn’t matter what the injury toll is – it’s all up to the 22 that we put out week to week.  We’ll go into this Friday night game against Geelong thinking the same.”