When the final siren heralded Luke Beveridge's first win as an AFL senior coach, his new side had enjoyed 10 more scoring shots. They'd had 17 more inside 50 entries. And they had dominated the final quarter. 

Yet such was the nature of this gripping contest you could never rule West Coast out of contention. Indeed, it was the Eagles who had twice skipped to that match-high lead after four unanswered goals to start the second term and another three to begin the second half. 

West Coast certainly would have been happy enough with their start, Jamie Cripps and Luke Shuey with the first two goals of the game, the Eagles dropping men back then watching them surge into seemingly acres of space forward of centre, Shuey in particular a major beneficiary. 

But no amount of goals would have been adequate compensation for the loss of key defender Mitch Brown just 13 minutes in, after what seemed an innocuous-enough looking incident. 

It wasn't. After a major delay, Brown was carted off on a stretcher, the delay more than long enough for West Coast to ponder the ramifications, and not just the immediate ones. 

The Bulldogs were already stretching the Eagles for height with key targets like Tom Boyd, Jack Redpath and Stewart Crameri, West Coast having lost two key defensive planks in the off-season via the retirement of Darren Glass and the season-ending knee injury to best and fairest winner Eric Mackenzie. 

This was about the last thing they could afford. Though it wasn't necessarily the Bulldogs big men who benefited directly. The Doggies' smaller forwards and running types cashed in first, Liam Picken, Mitch Honeychurch and Luke Dahlhaus all hitting the scoreboard as well as picking up plenty of ball. 

Neither did West Coast help their own cause with some sloppy tackling. Three of the Bulldogs' first four goals came from free kicks, all justified, and a fourth to boot just before half-time to Redpath, which put the Dogs in front again. 

That in itself seemed an unlikely prospect early in the second term after the Eagles rattled on four goals in the first 10 minutes. 

In that period, their football was clean, swift and precise enough to slice through the Doggies' defences, many of the attacks launched by skipper Shannon Hurn, managing to create as well as tackle the sizeable – literally – task of Bulldog spearhead Boyd. 

Big men Scott Lycett and Josh Kennedy got on the end of some good work, Shuey and Cripps both bobbed up with their second goals and the gap crept out to 15 points, threatening to become something more substantial quickly. 

The Bulldogs may have buckled slightly, but they weren't, however, about to break. Easton Wood kept things interesting with a  badly-needed goal. Jake Stringer bobbed up with his second after the Dogs' most enterprising passage of play to that point. And Redpath gave his team whatever psychological buffer lay in a scoreboard advantage at the long break. 

But they had to do it all over again once West Coast jumped out of the blocks after half-time, brilliantly served by Cripps up forward. He just kept bobbing up in the right spots, his fifth and final major, followed by another Nic Naitanui special, a one-handed pick-up, weave and snap giving the Eagles the lead for a final time. 

Boyd was brilliantly held by the undersized but game Jeremy McGovern, but it was his solitary goal for the evening which put the Doggies back in front. Crameri, Stringer and Dahlhaus all missed chances to hammer the final nail home, that job left to Tory Dickson, who landed the tackle which caused Elliott Yeo to be pinged for illegal disposal. 

Even then, West Coast were still a chance, a Kennedy goal to give them hope disallowed when the key forward was ruled to have held  back Dale Morris. 

But the Dogs deserved this by the end, leading the major statistical categories, and the bulk of the play. 

That often hasn't been enough to guarantee them victory previously. That it did this time was a healthy indicator that while Beveridge's team is likely to be lauded for its running and attacking attitude, it doesn't necessarily want for grit, either.

WESTERN BULLDOGS 14.13 (97) WEST COAST 14.3 (87)

GOALS Western Bulldogs: Stringer 3, Johannissen 2, Dickson 2, Wood, Redpath, Dahlhaus, Picken, Bontempelli, Honeychurch, Boyd. West Coast: Cripps 5, Kennedy 2, Shuey 2, Gaff, LeCras, Naitanui, Lycett, Lamb.

BEST WESTERN BULLDOGS: Macrae, Morris, Boyd, Jong, Stringer, Dahlhaus. WEST COAST: Cripps, McGovern, Hurn, Masten, Priddis, Naitanui.

UMPIRES: Schmitt, McInerney, Ryan.

CROWD: 22,366 at Etihad Stadium.