Western Bulldogs star Adam Cooney admits he had one eye on the scoreboard in the last term of Sunday's AFL win over Collingwood.

The Bulldogs had to beat the Magpies by 22 points or more to snatch third spot from Mick Malthouse's side.

The Etihad Stadium scoreboard featured a live ladder in the last term, showing the two teams' percentages.

Bulldogs captain Brad Johnson took the margin to 24 points with his goal from a tight angle late in the match and they finished just .3 per cent ahead of the Magpies.

"I had a bit of a sneak - I was a bit away with the fairies because I kept looking up at the scoreboard to see where we were at," Cooney said.

"But I suppose it's good in a way up there to know where you're sitting at the time."

While the win and the elevation on the ladder were morale boosts ahead of next week's qualifying final against Geelong, the Bulldogs also have something more important - momentum.

Unlike the last few years, they have finished the regular season strongly.

After the shock round-19 loss to West Coast, the 'Dogs have beaten top-eight sides Brisbane, Geelong and the Magpies.

"Probably the main thing is the momentum ... in previous years, we've sort-of limped into the finals," Cooney said.

"We lost our first final last year in a pretty disappointing fashion, so to go in with the guys' confidence up is a positive.

"We set ourselves a month ago, we knew we had to win two of our last three games coming in after a disappointing game against West Coast.

"To win all three is certainly a good start."

Cooney is also building some solid personal form after his injury-interrupted start to the season.

He was high among the Bulldogs' best on Sunday with 31 disposals.

"I've been chipping away a little bit, I probably (wasn't) effective as I'd like to have been early in the year," he said.

"But I'm certainly getting my game back together now, which is good.

"It's good for my confidence that my body can hold up and hopefully it does in the next month."

While the Bulldogs beat the Cats just week ago, Cooney said they remained formidable opponents.

But Cooney and his team-mates are now oozing confidence.

"It's good for the confidence of the young guys to know we can match it we can match it with the better teams," he said.

"If we play our best footy, we can match any team in the comp, whether it's St Kilda, Geelong, Collingwood and even Brisbane - we've beaten all those sides in the last month, bar St Kilda.

"It's just good for us to be winning."

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