Western Bulldogs president David Smorgon doesn't believe revenge will be used as a source of motivation ahead of his team's Second Qualifying Final engagement with Geelong at the MCG on Saturday.
The Doggies were eliminated from last year's finals series by the Cats when they lost to Mark Thompson's men by 29 points in the preliminary final stage.
However, Smorgon believes making amends for that disappointing performance, which saw the Dogs only manage 2.7 in the second half despite dominating play for the most part, will be at the forefront of players' minds heading into another September encounter with Geelong.
"There was a considerable concern and disappointment when we lost to the Cats last year," he said at Whitten Oval on Thursday.
"I think we had them on toast in the third quarter, we just couldn't kick that vital goal and in the end they ran away with it."
"But there was a real genuine sense of disappointment and of course that's what good clubs do, you learn from your fault, you learn from your mistakes, you learn from your defeats."
The Bulldogs defeated the Cats by 14 points in Round 21 but Smorgon thinks his team will take confidence from the way it finished off the season as a whole with victories also against the Lions in Brisbane and Collingwood rather than solely its most recent clash with Geelong.
"I think it's a confidence you build up during the course of the year, a confidence about your fitness levels, about your skill levels, about working as a team," he said.
"I think what gives us the overall confidence is the form over the last three weeks in particular, not just one game."
Smorgon also admitted that as president it's hard for him not to dare to dream about the possibility of the Bulldogs claiming their first flag since 1954 in what is widely viewed as one of the most open finals series in recent memory.
"In a management sense you do look ahead, I mean, you know, we have to look ahead because there's lots of things you've got to plan in anticipation," he said.
"But you also know there's a bottom drawer where if those plans don't go into being, you put them in the bottom drawer and forget about them."
"You have to do a lot of planning and therefore it forces some of us, not the playing group but others to think ahead what do you do if you win this week? And then you go to a preliminary final and then if you win that it goes to a grand final and if you win a grand final."
"So of course it forces you to think about it, but we don't get carried away."
Meanwhile, Smorgon maintained that star full back Brian Lake's contract negotiations won't be re-visited until the end of the season.
Smorgon was speaking following an announcement by the federal government to hand the Bulldogs a further $1.2 million to complete the Whitten Oval redevelopment.