Western Bulldogs head coach Nathan Burke says the most impressive part of Friday night’s win over Richmond was seeing his side recognise they needed to lift when they were seriously challenged.

The AFLW Bulldogs led from start to finish to record a 13-point win, but the persistent Tigers kept pushing - closing to within four points late in the third term.

Burke was pleased to see his team respond after three-quarter time.

“I said to (the group) at half-time that in these sorts of games, one team normally gets to the point of ‘this is too hard’ and they start to drop a little bit, and unfortunately that was us,” Burke told media post-match.

“We got to that point where Richmond – to their credit – really lifted, but the most impressive part of it was (our team) recognised that, and said ‘that’s not us’.

“We don’t want to be that team that just wilts and falls over.”

Burke also praised the efforts of hard on-baller Kirsty Lamb and skipper Ellie Blackburn – who he revealed had been battling a sore knee leading up to the match.

“(Ellie) hurt her knee a bit last week, and didn’t train at all throughout the week, but I reckon I would have had to chain her to a tree to not get her out there to be totally honest,” Burke said.

“Both her and Kirsty Lamb - with such a young team in the midfield - those two have been absolutely extraordinary.

“Hopefully the All Australian selectors are looking at not only just the number of stats that they’ve got and the number of goals that they’ve kicked, but looking at the importance of what they are to a team that’s 5-4.

“They’ve carried far more than their share of the load throughout the midfield than any other midfield in the league. Hopefully they get recognised for that.”