WESTERN Bulldogs defender Tom Williams is looking forward to playing his first AFL finals match after briefly fearing those dreams had been shattered by another injury.

The 24-year-old declared himself “raring to go” for next Saturday night’s qualifying final against Collingwood after shrugging off a knee concern in his side’s round 22 win over the Bombers.

Bulldogs fans had their hearts in their mouths late in the third term when the 24-year-old, who has managed just 53 matches in an injury-interrupted start to his career, fell to the Etihad Stadium turf clutching his left knee.

Their fears were heightened after midfielder Ryan Griffen had also left the ground earlier in the night with a knee injury.

While Griffen did not return, it was a happier tale for Williams who later told of his relief at being able to resume play.

“It was just an awkward sort of a situation,” he told westernbulldogs.com.au.

“I was a bit worried at the time but it was just a wait and see there for a little bit, but it was all right.

“I’d had a bit of tendinitis in there and I just jarred it, and I was hoping it’d be okay and I was pretty relieved when I came off [and found out it was OK].”

Williams will be asked to play a key role against the Magpies next week.

With Mick Malthouse’s team possessing big forwards such as Travis Cloke, Chris Dawes and one of Leigh Brown, Darren Jolly or Josh Fraser, the emerging defender will need to be at his best to curtail a dangerous Collingwood forward half.

But he’s up for the challenge.

“I’m raring to go now,” he said.

“I’ve never played a final. For six years I’ve watched the boys play and now I’m raring to go. I can’t wait for next week.”

The Bulldogs weren’t super impressive in Saturday night’s 29-point win over Essendon but Williams felt his side righted some of the wrongs of previous weeks.

“Obviously we wanted to get the win before the finals but it’s more about the big picture and things we needed to do to get right before next week,” Williams said.

“I thought we took a step towards that but we’ll adjust some things through the week.
“We won the game, so we ticked one box.

“A lot of guys ran into some form - Granty (Jarrad Grant) kicked six, a lot of midfielders got a lot of the ball and Mitch Hahn down back was very good as well, so I think we took a lot out of the game and we did address a few issues we had.”