WESTERN Bulldogs skipper Matthew Boyd capped a massive Easter weekend with a best on ground display in Monday night's loss to Fremantle, but that was cold comfort as he claimed responsibility for the defeat.

Boyd's weekend began with his wife Kate giving birth to the couple's first child on Friday night before he joined his team on the trip to Perth for the Anzac Day night clash with Fremantle.

That certainly didn’t affect his game as he picked up an all-time Western Bulldogs high of 45 possessions to go with an incredible 12 clearances and 10 entries inside-50. That was little consolation to the first-year skipper, though, following the seven-point loss.

"It doesn’t mean much really. It's not how much you get, it's what you do with it and unfortunately I made a few mistakes with the ball that cost us a goal or two towards the end," Boyd said.

"That's really disappointing and I'm shattered about it actually, but that's life and footy and you have to get on with it. Nobody's not going to make a mistake through the course of the game, but you have to try and minimise them as much as possible, especially late, when it's tight like that."

Following Kate giving birth to his daughter Chloe in Melbourne on Friday night, Boyd had plenty of excitement stored up as he travelled to Perth and now he can't wait to get back to his wife and new daughter.

"I'm obviously really excited that my wife gave birth on Friday night, Good Friday, and that 48 hours was pretty intense. She is a super woman and I'm proud of her, and now my daughter," he said.

"I can't wait to get home to give them a cuddle now because my daughter certainly won't know or care about this result, so she'll hopefully have a smile on her face for me. I'm really happy to have a healthy baby."

Boyd saw plenty of good signs from his teammates in terms of fighting spirit, intensity and the pressure they applied on Fremantle. Even though it didn’t quite result in a win, he has no doubt it's a step in the right direction for the Bulldogs.

"We showed a fair bit of fight going from three goals down in the last quarter. That showed character and fight, but we just weren’t able to hold on in the end. They are a really good side Freo, though, and they will be a good show this year," he said.

"The pressure was good from both sides. That's something we've been trying to work on and improve, and I think this was a real step in the right direction in terms of our pressure stakes. We'll now lick our wounds and go again next week."

Boyd is now looking forward to the challenge of taking on Collingwood this Sunday at the MCG.

"It's another big game obviously and they are the best team in the competition by a very long way. It's a great challenge for us to try and mix it with them, and we look forward to it."