A FIGHTING win by the Western Bulldogs on Friday night over Adelaide, will add confidence to a playing group that had maintained its morale in the face of growing criticism, according to star veteran Daniel Giansiracusa.

The Bulldogs conceded six goals in the opening quarter, but only allowed their opponents to kick a further four goals for the match, as the Bulldogs potent midfield returned to some of its best form.

"We persevered and really worked as hard as we could. We have talked about persevering, we got it back to level by half time and we over ran them and I thought we really controlled in the second half,'' Giansiracusa said after the match.

While Giansiracusa believes there is still plenty of room for improvement on the 30-point victory, he does believe the win will boost confidence for the Bulldogs who now have their fourth win of the season. "With winning comes a bit of excitement and a bit of hope and all we are focused on what is next and that is Gold Coast.''

Despite recent losses chipping away at the teams' collective confidence, Giansiracusa said morale had remained high at Whitten Oval.

"I think the morale of the place has been really good, considering we have been under the pump. Everyone has been coming from all angles, board, coaches, players, people have been there to have a pot at us and we deserved it. We were desperate for a win. It was the big stage of Friday night footy, with everybody watching and it was really good that we did that.

With the Bulldogs celebrating the 200-game milestone of Robert Murphy, Giansiracusa admitted there was extra motivation for him, and the entire team, to play well against the Crows.

Murphy was one of the stars of the night, the general of the backline, stemming the Adelaide attack in the early parts of the match and sending the Bulldogs on the counter-attack as they began to control of the match. In his milestone game, Murphy had 26 disposals and created seven inside 50s for the Bulldogs.

"He has been a fantastic player for us, he has been a shining light all year for us and he hasn't had a lot of help in terms of the offensive side from the defence,'' said Giansiracusa. "It was fantastic for him, and it was good to chair him off and I am sure he will enjoy the next 24 or 48 hours.''

The 29 year-old, who passed his own 200-game milestone in round 10, is in a rich vein of form. He kicked four goals against the Crows on Friday night, including two crucial third term majors, which broke open the match. He currently leads the Bulldogs' goal kicking with 22 goals for the season.

"I am really enjoying trying to lead that forward line, because we have a young group down there and just trying to educate them and instruct them. I love coming to training and trying to help those guys out, I love instructing them on game day and hopefully they are learning and improving from it.''

Despite his own good form, as the Bulldogs struggled this year, Giansiracusa received plenty of personal criticism, commentary that he has tried to avoid.

''I just listen to my coaches and my teammates because they are the ones that count, and I just try to block it out really," he said.

"I have had to work hard all year, I started slowly and the last few weeks have been an improvement, but I still have a lot of work with my skill level. But in footy, as I keep telling the young blokes, if you work hard, eventually you will get the rewards and that is what I am still trying to do."

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs