Young Bulldog defender Lachie Jacques’ first two games have been handy to say the least. Photo: AFL MEDIA

Four goals. That’s effectively the difference between a non-finalist and a potential premiership team. And the Western Bulldogs are the proof.

There’s never been a better team miss out on playing finals the Doggies last year. They finished ninth despite 14 wins, a record. But perhaps even more significant was just how narrow was the gap to those above them.

The reviews of the Dogs’ 2025 were very “glass half-empty”, the fact that in 11 games against the top eight, they won just two, a pair of thumping wins of Greater Western Sydney. What was pointed out a lot less was that none of those nine losses was by any more than 22 points.

The Dogs had officially the best forward structure in the AFL (No.1 for scores), and a top-notch midfield. All that was required to make a big difference was some tweaking of defensive mechanisms and structure.

And after two highly-impressive wins, the first at the Gabba against reigning premier Brisbane, then on Saturday another spanking of the Giants, this perennial disappointment appears very finely retuned indeed.

Buku Khamis not finding his way to Carlton last trade period might end up being an absolute blessing for the Bulldogs, because in the same way Rory Lobb finally found his calling as a key defender, Khamis is starting to look pretty comfortable and capable as a negator of opposition scoring threats.

Former Sun Connor Budarick is already looking an inspired pick up, and Lachie Jacques’ first two games have been handy to say the least, improving the Dogs’ class on the exit from the defensive 50 in the same way Joel Freijah was doing before his transition to midfield.

But it’s system, too, which is looking more effective, the Dogs against the Giants consistently getting more bodies back into the defensive 50 then working damagingly on the offensive rebound.

The Giants had 50 inside 50s against the Bulldogs on Saturday for a miserable return of 7.11. That’s a return of 36 per cent, a vast improvement on their mediocre 2025 ranking of 11th for scores from opposition entries, at 45.2 per cent.

Of course, Brisbane was a lot more prolific against the Dogs last week, passing the 100-point barrier. But already (even, granted, from a two-game sample) the largesse of last year granted opposition is being reeled in, that 11th ranking for scores from opposition entries currently fourth, and the costly ranking of 10th for opposition scores from turnover having improved to sixth.

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And given how potent the Bulldogs are for scoring, it’s not like coach Luke Beveridge needs to come up with the tightest defence in the competition, just a decent amount of improvement, or a better balance between the two game phases.

“As much as we have gone to work on a handful of things that hopefully improve defensive aggregate, our plan was to always make sure it didn’t compromise our ability to score,” he said after the Giants’ thumping on Saturday.

“It’s going to be hard to minimise scoring every week, so I think it is just on balance; it’s equal terms. We want to score, but you would have to say today was a pretty good source pressure and defensive effort.”

Beveridge deserves credit, too, for sticking to his guns on leaving Aaron Naughton up forward when at times it seemed the entire football world was screaming for the high-flyer to be returned to his original home of defence.

Yes, preventing opposition scores has been a cornerstone of every premiership side since before time. But being able to score yourself is pretty important, too. And which opponent won’t be very anxious coming up against a Bulldog attack featuring Naughton in career-best form, impending superstar Sam Darcy and another massive improver in Rhylee West?

That’s before you throw in an army of midfielders nearly all of whom are also capable of hitting the scoreboard, ruckman Tim English, too, for that matter. And not even considering the prospect of long-term injury casualty Cody Weightman’s return at some stage. Little wonder the Dogs were completely comfortable letting Jamarra Ugle-Hagan go.

So after a tremendous 2-0 start, Beveridge’s Bulldogs have another massive test on Friday night against Adelaide away, the Crows buoyed by a gritty MCG win over a traditional bogey team in Collingwood.

Get to a Round 3 bye undefeated, with the prospect of a struggling Essendon the following week, and the Dogs will have already remedied one issue out of last year, the inherent dangers of playing “catch-up” after a slow start.

There’s more hurdles after that, Hawthorn, Geelong, Sydney and Fremantle to follow. The Dogs, though, did beat the Swans last year, and their losses to the Hawks, Cats and Dockers (twice) were by 22, 14, 16 and 15 points.

Have the defensive improvements made up that amount of ground? We’ll seldom get a better numerical indicator of how much difference a sterner defence can make. But right now, you’d think the Dogs are at least a four-goal better line-up than last season. Their opponents might need to find a few more themselves as a result.

This article first appeared at ESPN.