Western Bulldogs captain Brad Johnson says his missed shot let down his AFL club, but another goal-kicking great has urged him not to go hard on himself for squandering what would have been a match-winning kick.

Lining up after the final siren, Johnson missed the chance to win the game when he sent his kick, from 40 metres out on a slight angle, wide at Telstra Dome on Sunday night.

The miss ended the Bulldogs' unbeaten run and handed North Melbourne a three-point victory.

Johnson said while his teammates had been supportive, he felt his miss had let down the side and Bulldogs fans.

"It felt, obviously, very disappointing, (I) let so many people down and all the supporters," he told Fairfax radio.

"But that's footy, we've just got to move on from it as a group and as an individual, I need to move on from it as quickly as possible, you can't dwell on these things."

Johnson received a show of support from former Footscray full-forward Simon Beasley, who 20 years ago experienced similar anguish when he narrowly missed a shot after fulltime, which would have earned his side victory over the Brisbane Bears at Carrara.

Beasley said Johnson "poked" at the shot rather than kicking through the ball, but insisted the skipper was not to blame.

"The ball was in good hands, it's just one of those unfortunate things and that happens in footy," he said.

"I don't think he should be disappointed because you can't just put it down to that situation.

"We made some fundamental mistakes, we stopped running and we got 23 points up and we should have nailed them from there."

Beasley attended Sunday night's game and felt confident when he saw who had the ball when the final siren rang, as he believed that aside from Robert Murphy, Johnson was the best candidate to take the pressure kick.

But he noted Johnson's timing was out, and issued some advice for players faced with the same scenario.

"You just pick out something behind the goal up high, mid-levels of the stands, and you just target it and get it in your mind and that's what you have to do," he said.

"You go back, put your head down and then you kick through the ball.

"The biggest mistake Johnno made yesterday was he poked at the ball and it's easy to do, you know."

Beasley booted 575 goals in an eight-season career and won Footscray a match against Collingwood in 1984 when he converted late in the game after he marked a kick across goal by the Magpies' Graeme Allan.

But in round seven 1988 he had the chance to be the hero again when he marked just before the final siren, about 15 metres out but close to the boundary.

"The problem with the Carrara one is I couldn't see much of the goal, I was on an angle and we had Bears players everywhere and they formed a human pyramid," he said.

"Afterwards the VFL outlawed that, they said `No players standing on shoulders' from now on'."

Beasley admits now he should have tried to swerve a banana kick through instead of trying a regulation drop punt, but is philosophical about the incident.

"It's all part of history now," he said.

"Footy's full of should'ves and could'ves.

"Johnno shouldn't be concerned."

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