The cold, hard facts are staring Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge right in the face.
A record 88-point thumping of a lacklustre GWS on Thursday night lifted the Bulldogs into the top eight ahead of the weekend's games.
But there's still plenty of work to be done if Beveridge's men are to lock in a finals berth.
The Dogs face lowly Melbourne and West Coast over the next fortnight before a crucial last-round clash with fellow contenders Fremantle.
"We need to keep winning, so it's one down and a handful to go," Beveridge said after his side's commanding 19.18 (132) to 6.8 (44) win over the Giants at Marvel Stadium.
The Bulldogs dominated their opponents at the coalface, winning one-sided contested possession (138-86) and clearance (41-24) counts.
They held the Giants to their second-lowest score of the season, and the third-lowest tally of any team under the Docklands roof this year.
"It was an improvement obviously to keep a pretty threatening forward line to that score, but also to limit our exposure there and keeping them out of their 50," Beveridge said.
"It's a pretty good way to play if you can do it."
The Bulldogs extended their dominance of GWS to nine wins from their last 10 meetings and Beveridge said there was "nothing to be unhappy about" in the scintillating display.
He and Giants counterpart Adam Kingsley agreed the Dogs' ability to win contested possession was the decisive factor.
"Sometimes where angels fear to tread, you can't second-guess yourself in this game," Beveridge said.
"Not that we have throughout the course of the year, but I felt that any disputed ball that needed to be won, there was a great commitment at ground level and in the air."
The Bulldogs have a rare 10-day gap between games, facing Melbourne at the MCG on August 10.
Despite the cut-throat scenario facing his side, Beveridge didn't build up the GWS clash like a final and appears unlikely to do so with the remaining home-and-away fixtures.
"We needed to strike a balance because we couldn't tense up," Beveridge said.
"We needed to make sure that the players played with freedom and it's critical that we remind ourselves of what our strengths have been, and obviously one of those is our ability to hit the scoreboard."
