WESTERN Bulldogs young gun Joel Freijah believes he has built some genuine resilience by working his way through the first serious form slump of his career.

The highly rated 20-year-old could have a significant role for the Bulldogs in their historic wildcard final against Collingwood on Friday night.

Like his team, Freijah is finding top gear at the most important time of the season.

But go back six weeks and the Bulldogs dynamo had been dropped back to the VFL for the round 19 clash with Gold Coast.

The shock omission was reversed in less than 24 hours, Freijah recalled to the senior squad when Tom Liberatore and Riley Garcia were pulled from the team with injury following the captain's run.

"It was a pretty different 48 hours," Freijah told AAP.

"Not playing, then playing and then travelling up.

"But I probably didn't have too much time to think about it, and I was told the day before that I'd be playing (in the AFL).

"I think it might have been a little bit of a circuit breaker, even though I didn't actually play in the VFL."

Freijah has thanked his coaches and teammates for supporting him when he was "challenged" with form.

"They were just backing me to get back to my best form, just through instinct and simplifying my game, which has been a big focus of mine over the last month," he said.

"It's been nice to be able to find some form coming into this time of year.

"I stayed positive through it all, and I feel like I've built a bit of resilience as well coming through the other side of it.

"I just needed to strip my game back and simplify things and play on instinct, and that's helped me a lot."

The midfielder was among the Bulldogs' best in a thrilling win over Melbourne last Saturday, gathering 24 possessions, having five clearances and slotting an important goal.

Freijah was labelled 'Baby Bont' after bursting into the AFL in 2024.

Although he has simply laughed off the comparisons to Marcus Bontempelli, Freijah has lauded the impact of the captain at the Bulldogs.

"He's a tremendous player on field, but his leadership on field as well, but especially off field is terrific just every day at the club," Freijah said of Bontempelli.

"His leadership's fantastic and his care for everyone around him, and he just makes everyone a better person and player as well."