Semi-final win over Hawthorn was the moment Western Bulldogs knew it could win the premiership

THE BULLDOGS broke a 62-year premiership drought on Saturday but when did the players truly believe it could pull it off after finishing seventh on the ladder?

WESTERN Bulldog Matthew Boyd says his teammates didn’t truly believe winning the premiership was possible until after its stirring semi-final victory over Hawthorn.

The Bulldogs broke a 62-year premiership drought after one of the all-time great finals series — winning the flag from seventh, the first team to win it from outside the top four since Adelaide in 1998.

On their way to the historic win, the Bulldogs beat last year’s Grand Finalists West Coast in Perth, threepeat premiers Hawthorn and raging flag favourites GWS away.

But Boyd says while belief at Whitten Oval has always been strong, it wasn’t until the victory over the Hawks that the playing group really felt the premiership was within reach.

“We have had a pretty strong belief throughout the whole year but particularly after the Hawthorn final (we knew we could win it),” he said.

Matthew Boyd takes a moment to soak up the enormity of winning the premiership and getting hold of the cup. Picture: David Caird

“Coming up against the best team in the last 10 years, probably one of the best teams ever, and being able to knock them off at the home ground and coming back from Perth (where) there were a few things against us, but in the rooms after the game, I think a few of us said: ‘We can win this thing’, and we did.”

The Bulldogs’ first premiership since 1954 has generated an outpouring of emotion from players, coaches, fans and the wider football community.

But the players didn’t get caught up in it.

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“It is a great story, and when you are in it, you don’t really appreciate the magnitude or what sort of achievement it is because you are focused on the day-to-day, getting things right and just trying to just forge ahead and go forward, and not really worry about what’s gone behind,” Boyd told Channel 7.

“So we didn’t really look too much at that sort of stuff. We really just had a steely focus about us and we wanted to get better.

“We didn’t want to accept the fact that we were the poor old Bulldogs and we would never have success and never achieve anything. We didn’t really want to buy into that concept. And we didn’t.”

Matthew Boyd celebrates to the crowd. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Coach Luke Beveridge this month gave Boyd the green light to play on in 2017 despite agreeing to put contract talks on hold mid-year.

But with a premiership now finally under the 34-year-old’s belt, he’ll take some time to assess whether he wants to go around again.

“I’m just going to enjoy this moment,” Boyd said.

“Obviously I’ve really enjoyed my last couple of years of footy. It’s all culminated in a premiership and it is what we all play for. It is the reason we get out of bed in the morning and turn up to the footy club.

“I’ll let this sink in and I’ll make a decision in a couple of weeks or however long it takes.”