WESTERN Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has questioned whether Collingwood's Tim Membrey should have even been allowed to take his dramatic set-shot after the siren on Friday night.

Membrey missed the attempt after the buzzer had sounded, ensuring the Bulldogs escaped with a thrilling three-point win, but Beveridge was miffed after claiming that the countdown clock for the set-shot had expired by the time he kicked.

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Umpires paid the mark for Membrey with 34 seconds remaining, with Beveridge questioning why play-on wasn't called after 30 seconds when it appeared as though he began his set-shot routine just moments before the siren.

"It's always nice to get a little bit of luck," Beveridge said afterwards.

"Mind you, the clock had run out beforehand. Technically, it should have been play-on before the siren went. But it wasn't called. That was an interesting thing at the end there. I don't know what happened, but it's a pretty obvious one to call play-on isn't it?

"It doesn't matter now. But there are things like that happening all the time in-game. I don't know what happens, there's four of them [umpires] out there. How can you miss that? I'm not sure."

The Western Bulldogs ultimately progressed through to an elimination final following the cracking wildcard victory, with Beveridge saying he thought Membrey's goal had gone through after watching from the bench.

"I did [think it was through]," Beveridge said.

"I was on the bench at the time and the only indication that it wasn't was the celebration of our players near the goal line. I thought it was actually through. I was watching [Membrey's] body language and him trying to steer it back."

The three-point win was the Bulldogs' eighth by a single-digit margin this season, and its seventh by under a kick, though Beveridge said he didn't believe his side handled the final moments well enough.

The Bulldogs conceded six goals in a dramatic final term and gave up an end-to-end play when Sam Davidson kicked a long behind with just 60 seconds remaining, allowing Collingwood to go the length of the field for Membrey's mark.

"That was then, this is now," Beveridge said of the side's record in close games.

"I don't think we played the last minute and a half, two minutes too well. We had a held ball that we kicked to the centre square, we didn't need to kick a point, we needed to cool our jets a fraction when we got the ball, we gave them another look at it, and then we weren't able to defend the aerial ball in the last quarter.

"As much as we won the game, I don't think we executed it too well. There will be a bit to learn again. We just couldn't ice the clock and that's partly to do with the risk-taking of the Collingwood team and we just didn't manage it too well."

The Western Bulldogs will play either Geelong or Adelaide in an elimination final next weekend, depending on the result of Saturday night's other wildcard between Melbourne and Carlton.

But the Bulldogs will be without tough midfielder Matt Kennedy for that September outing, after he failed to finish the game due to suffering a concussion in an otherwise impressive 27-disposal performance.

"There was a fair bit of green on the stats sheet," Beveridge said of the win.

"But we know Collingwood just keeps coming and it was a pretty ballistic game. The heart has settled down, but when there's that many lead changes that late in the game and you're torn between where your numbers should be, it's difficult to get your calculations right.

"Obviously, some of those late centre clearances were crucial and obviously Aaron Naughton and Arty Jones were pretty clutch at the end there to be able to put us back in front twice.

"It never felt comfortable. Ultimately, both teams made mistakes. But we probably left a few out there to give ourselves a bit more of a margin earlier in the game and Collingwood normally make you pay.

"I'm a bit relieved, obviously. But I just said to the players, if we hadn't have won I would've been enormously proud of what they did tonight. We've seen the improvement come out of all of them. We always knew that we were going to need it to even get to here, so it's really encouraging for us.

"Now, it's important that we don't get too carried away. I think they're all in a bit of a state of disrepair to a degree, because they left it all out there. But we'll freshen up. We'll lose Matt Kennedy for the next one, he'll go into protocols I think. But at the moment, I feel like everyone else has got through in reasonable health."