The Western Bulldogs will gather at a pub next Wednesday to watch their AFL finals fate be decided about 1700kms away.

With their loss to Fremantle at Marvel Stadium on Sunday evening, the Dogs left their position inside the top eight vulnerable for Gold Coast on which to pounce.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Western Bulldogs going to watch final game together.

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If the Suns beat Essendon in the final game of the season at People’s First Stadium on Wednesday night, the Bulldogs will slip to ninth, despite an admirable 14-9 record and a percentage of 137.0.

No team in the AFL era has ever missed the top eight with 13 wins, let alone 14.

Given the injury crisis at Essendon, and their 11-game losing streak, a win over the Suns would appear near-impossible.

But that’s exactly what the Dogs will be hoping for when they pin their September hopes on it at a local pub on Wednesday.

“There’s a lot riding on that Wednesday night game now, isn’t there?” Mitch Cleary said on Sunday night after Brisbane beat Hawthorn.

“If the Gold Coast Suns beat Essendon by around that five-goal margin, they will jump into seventh spot and Hawthorn (will) move down to eighth.

“What we can tell you is the Bulldogs will go together to the pub as a team on Wednesday night to watch that game on the glimmer of hope that the Gold Coast Suns get beaten and the Dogs are still alive.”

Kane Cornes added: “Which is strange — you wouldn’t think that Gold Coast would drop that game against half an Essendon side, basically a VFL side, but we’ll see.”’

Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge clearly doesn’t believe in miracles though — not if his post-match presser is anything to go by.

“Essendon beating Gold Coast is as long a shot as there is, so we anticipate that our season’s probably done,” Beveridge said after the 17.10 (112) to 14.13 (97) loss at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.

“We’ve just got to now support the rest of the boys who have got a Footscray (VFL) finals series ahead of us.”

Beveridge said the Bulldogs will train as usual in the hope of an Essendon upset on Wednesday night.

“We’ll carry on like that slim chance is there,” Beveridge said.

“We’ll turn up Tuesday and have a flush run and process some things, and then we’ll obviously be attentive to what happens Wednesday.”

The Bulldogs dominated early against Fremantle but failed to make the most of their chances and were out-muscled by the Dockers’ talls.

Fremantle piled on seven unanswered goals in a blistering second quarter and while the Bulldogs didn’t roll over, they couldn’t reel their opponents back in.

The result left the Bulldogs nursing a horror 2-9 record against top-half teams, which has been their Achilles heel throughout the season.

“We can’t have a ‘woe is us’ sort of attitude. That’s just what it is,” Beveridge said.

“It’s the competition. The better teams have just got ahead of the equation a little bit with the teams down below and there just hasn’t been enough upsets.”

- With AAP