Western Bulldogs youngster Liam Picken has played his first AFL final, but wants to move on quickly.

Picken, one of the competition's best first-year players in 2009, said the mood among his teammates after Saturday's loss to Geelong in the second qualifying final was to forget the past.

"That's right, just move on to next week," he said after the 14.12 (96) to 12.10 (82) defeat at the MCG.

"Just get to training on Monday, train hard and get read for Friday night.

"I've got (finals) experience now. Obviously we've got to move on to next week and hopefully we can back up and get back on the winner's list." The Bulldogs play the Brisbane Lions in a sudden-death semi-final on Friday night.

Picken, who spent most of the game in defence, said Geelong's barnstorming start was the difference and caught the Bulldogs flat-footed.

"The first quarter was disappointing, they came out and kicked a few goals and we were playing catch up all day," he said.

"I'm not sure (why) we had a slow start. I don't know if it was our mindset or what, but they just came out and played a lot better in that first quarter.

"I felt confident coming in, but we knew we were in for a tough day.

"We knew Geelong would come out fired up and we just didn't match their intensity in the first quarter." When the Bulldogs did lift they ably matched the Cats, getting to within nine points at the start of a see-sawing third quarter.

But that fightback counted for little when, in the last quarter, the usually reliable Shaun Higgins, Brad Johnson, Adam Cooney and Jason Akermanis (twice, both with hurried kicks) missed goals.

But Picken said the Bulldogs were unlikely to focus too much on errors next week.

"We finished top four and earned the right to have the double chance, so we've got to move on and get to training on Monday, train hard and have a positive outlook," he said.

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