It wasn’t all going to plan for the AFLW Bulldogs against Geelong on Friday night, but a second successive final quarter surge was enough to bank an important victory.

The previous week against Carlton, a 10-point deficit at the final change turned into a six-point win courtesy of three last term goals.

Against the Cats, the Bulldogs led by a single point heading into the last quarter, but broke free in the final stages to secure back-to-back wins.

The sealer was a piece of individual brilliance from young gun Jess Fitzgerald, who outsmarted two Geelong defenders, took two bounces and launched a long goal from just inside 50 with less than five minutes remaining.

“Geelong was like a brick wall.  We were banging against it, and we just couldn’t break through,” Bulldogs coach Nathan Burke said after the game.

“The only way to break through is to persist.  Keep going, and going, and going, and eventually, if you add a little bit of smart football with that hard work, things will go your way.

“There were some players probably at three quarter time who were thinking ‘this isn’t my night’, ‘this is not my game’.

“But they fought it out, and they all had a moment.  Even if it’s not your game, you keep working and working and you’ll have a moment that will be important for us.  They all did that in the last quarter.”

“Sometimes you’ve got to win ugly, to a degree.  I probably give us 10 out of 10 for work-rate, and five out of 10 for footy smarts, the way that we played the game.

“The fact that we can win a game with those numbers, that’s a good sign.

The Bulldogs now have two wins from their three games this season, with the immediate fixturing future unknown due to Victoria’s current covid-19 situation.