THE WESTERN Bulldogs won't give up the push for a top-four spot given the potential for shock results on the run home, veteran Matthew Boyd says.

The Dogs all but booked a return to finals with a gritty 14-point win over North Melbourne on Saturday night, although they still remain a win and significant percentage (24.1) behind Greater Western Sydney in fourth spot.

But with Collingwood, Essendon and Fremantle to come, the Dogs should start favourites to win their remaining games and keep the heat on their top-four rivals.

And Hawthorn's loss to Melbourne, plus the Giants' near miss against Gold Coast have shown that the run to finals might not be as straightforward as many people expect.

Five talking points: Western Bulldogs v North Melbourne

"It's pretty even, you can't take your foot off the pedal at any stage," Boyd told AFL.com.au.

"When you have a bad day, you can get knocked off, so really for us it's about maintaining consistency.

"We'll wait and see how it all plays out."

The inexperienced Dogs went in as outsiders against North, but overcame injuries to prime midfield movers Tom Liberatore, Mitch Wallis and Jack Macrae to notch an important win. 

Boyd said the Dogs' full-squad mentality has given them unfailing belief they can match it with any opponent.

"That's the strength of the group, is the numbers we're able to bring in," he said.

"I'm not sure how many we've played this year, 38 or 39 … we just keep being able to get the job done.

"It's just a good, solid team effort. We don't have anyone standing out, no superstars, we just all do our role."

Although the Dogs dominated the inside 50 count (60-45) against North, they only booted nine goals and their struggles hitting the scoreboard could be a headache against the AFL's elite teams.

Luke Beveridge's outfit has only kicked more than 85 points once in the past seven games.

However, Boyd backed the Bulldogs' manic pressure to stand them in good stead come September.

"If we defend like we defended tonight … then we don't need to score a big score," he said.

"But we know coming into finals a lot of teams have really good firepower and are able to score 100-plus regularly, so we'll probably have to be more efficient with our inside 50s and put more of a score on the board when finals come. 

"There's things we continue to work on, we continue to talk about. 

"It's a work in progress."