Reliable defender Alex Keath says the Western Bulldogs must be more consistent in 2021 to challenge the competition’s top teams.

The 29-year-old established himself as a critical component of the Bulldogs’ back line in 2020, playing all 18 games in his first season in red, white and blue.

But the Bulldogs had their shortcomings against the competition’s best teams – with just one win against a top eight side, in the run to finals against the West Coast Eagles.

“The stats say we beat one of the top eight sides throughout the year, so that’s not good enough to be a top, competing side,” Keath told media at VU Whitten Oval after training on Wednesday.

“That’s definitely where we need to get better, being more consistent and against those sides around us as well.

“I don’t think we’re far off the pace… it shows those top-four sides are really good in specific areas and we definitely need to be a bit more consistent throughout the year.”

Keath said coach Luke Beveridge had already targeted specific areas of the game his side needed to get better at.

The Bulldogs have played finals football the past two seasons after a late charge, but fallen at the final hurdle.

“We’re under no illusions that we need to improve,” Keath said.

“There’s some measurables there that Bevo’s been talking about through pre-season that we’ve got to get better at – and I think that was reflected in a few of our inconsistencies last year.

“We found ourselves in a bit of a hole last year and managed to dig ourselves out of it to make the finals.

“It was obviously disappointing to lose that first elimination final… The hunger’s there for the boys.”