Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge will go into Saturday's preliminary final against Greater Western Sydney confident his team is as well-prepared as it possibly can be.

The Bulldogs have done remarkably well all season to cover injuries. They still look fresh and full of running after a tough home and away season and two finals. They lead the competition in two pivotal statistical areas of contested and uncontested possession.

But Beveridge also knows that all that meticulous planning and strategy could be brought undone by a failure to perform perhaps the most fundamental requirement of all – to kick straight.

For all the Bulldogs' achievements over the past couple of seasons, conversion is one area where Beveridge's team is consistently adrift of many of its competitors, the Giants more so than most.

GWS head into the play-off for a grand final spot boasting the fourth-best record for conversion in the AFL, better than any of their remaining competitors. Sydney are fifth, Geelong ninth. And the Bulldogs? A distant 12th.

Conversion is always important, but never more so than in the final few games of the season, when the differences between the competing teams are more minimal than ever. The Bulldogs have already found that out the hard way several times in September.

In last year's thrilling but ultimately heart-breaking elimination final loss to Adelaide, the Bulldogs finished with 14.18 and three more scoring shots than their opponent in a defeat by just seven points.

Nor could the Doggies hit the target in their three successive preliminary final losses from 2008-10 under Rodney Eade.

Against Geelong in 2008, it was a scoreline of 7.12. The following year, in another cliff-hanger lost by just seven points against St Kilda, the final tally was 7.11. And in another loss to the Saints in the equivalent game in 2010, 8.16.

This year, the Bulldogs have kicked more behinds than goals in 10 of their 24 games. Significantly, their most accurate half of the season came at the most important time, against Hawthorn last week.

At half-time, the Dogs had registered four more scores than their opponent, but with only 6.10 to show for it, still trailed. In the second half, that tally was an unerringly straight 10.1 to Hawthorn's 5.7, the result a 23-point victory.

It's not the first time this season the Bulldogs have had a first-hand refresher on the importance of conversion. Their last-minute victory over Sydney by four points at the SCG in round 15, arguably their best of 2016 until the finals, came on the back of their most accurate scoreline, 13.5 a strike-rate of 72.2 per cent.

The Bulldogs' leading three goalkickers – Jake Stringer, Tory Dickson and Marcus Bontempelli – have also been among their most accurate shots at goal, though it's Tom Liberatore with 14.3 who has been by some margin their most reliable. Less reliable, indeed going at under 50 per cent, are Lachie Hunter, Josh Dunkley and Jordan Roughead.

Having said that, all three have kicked some clutch goals in the Bulldogs' two finals wins thus far, in a combined total of 6.7. Beveridge will be crossing fingers that not just they, but the others in the long roll call of Dogs who chip in on the scoreboard, have their kicking boots on when it counts most on Saturday, and hopefully, next week.

Because for all the discussions about match-ups and game plans, it's straight kicking which in recent times has more often proved the most important difference in finals matches. Including the past fortnight, there's been 24 finals played since 2014. The more accurate team has managed to win 10 of 12, the less accurate just four of 12.

Sydney's 7.18 almost certainly cost them last year's qualifying final against Fremantle's 10.9. In 2014, it was the Dockers shooting themselves in the foot and bowing out in straight sets when they booted 11.17 to Port Adelaide's 15.15 in a semi-final.

And it was the Power's turn to curse inaccuracy the following week when their 13.16 against their opponent's remarkably accurate 15.7 which saw them fail by three points to reach a grand final against Sydney instead of Hawthorn.

No team conceding anything more than a six per cent edge in accuracy to their opponent has been able to win any of the 24 finals, and indeed, only the Bulldogs, 14 per cent less accurate than the Crows last year, have even come close.

Bad kicking is bad football might be a well-worn adage, but it's never more appropriate than now. And Beveridge's Bulldogs cannot afford to be another case study as to why.