The Western Bulldogs stayed undefeated after three games with their dramatic last-gasp win against Adelaide, but Luke Beveridge believes it’s still too early to tell if his side can be a legitimate contender this season.

The Dogs led by 25 points early in the final term at Adelaide Oval on Friday night, but looked set to be overrun by the fast-finishing Crows, who hit the front with five minutes remaining.

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With the home fans roaring, Beveridge’s men showed impressive poise and resilience to kick the last two goals and score a gutsy six-point victory.

“There was a fair bit of integrity in that win,” Beveridge said.

“For the Crows to come back like they did, nipping at our heels all night really, I imagine they’d be pretty disappointed that they didn’t win.

“(But) I just feel like, ‘Yep, we’ve won three games’, but the competition is still sorting itself out.

“We still don’t know where we sit, and we won’t for a while, other than what the ladder is telling you.

“But I think before the season, if you were going to ask me what I thought were the most challenging parts of the fixture for us, it’d be Brisbane at the Gabba, the Crows here, Fremantle at Optus, and the Gold Coast Suns at People First Stadium.

“So, to tick off two of those (Brisbane and Adelaide), based on last year, it’s pretty encouraging.”

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Adding to the thrilling fourth quarter was the countdown clock at Adelaide Oval going down, with Beveridge noting it made it “difficult” to manage the final minutes.

“No-one knew what the time was until it got to about, gee what was it? There was about five or six minutes to go… everyone was flustered because you weren’t sure how urgent it was based on that clock ticking down,” he said.

“But I thought our players managed it pretty well. I mean, at the end when you’ve got a small margin, you’re definitely managing. You’re just trying to make sure the opposition don’t score.”

In such a tight game, the result could have gone Adelaide’s way if a fiery incident involving Sam Darcy had resulted in a goal.

The 22-year-old gave away two 50m penalties in a heated skirmish with Crows defenders Jordon Butts and Nick Murray in the third quarter, but Butts sprayed his set shot from 15m out.

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Beveridge relocated from the coach’s box to the bench shortly after the incident, but left Darcy on the field where he redeemed himself with a pivotal goal from long range shortly after his misdemeanour.

“In the olden days, you drag a player for things that are a bit undisciplined,” Beveridge said.

“He knows (he made a mistake) … I’m not going to embarrass him.

“In those circumstances, I’d like to think I support our player, (although I was) tempted.

“It’s a difficult one because I thought their key defenders, their opponent control and physicality was pretty good.

“I thought he and (Aaron) Naughton had to deal with a bit, so I felt like that was a battle that the Crows were doing well at, but the boys persisted.

“So, he knows, and I think he felt like he owed us one, and he’ll learn from it.”