CHRIS Grant freely admits he's envious of Luke Beveridge's Western Bulldogs' team as it prepares to play in the club's first Grand Final since 1961.

Grant established himself as one of the Bulldogs' greatest players over 341 games from 1990-2007, his ability to star at both ends of the ground making him one of the most versatile key-position players of his era.

The three-time All Australian played in 15 finals with the Bulldogs and was a member of the Terry Wallace-coached teams that lost preliminary finals to Adelaide in 1997 and 1998.

The Bulldogs' 1997 preliminary final loss was particularly galling.

Twenty-two points up at three-quarter time, they could manage only six behinds in the final term – including one by Tony Liberatore that the 1990 Brownlow medallist still swears was a goal – as the Crows piled on 4.6 to win by two points.

Grant told reporters on Wednesday the "pretty raw" emotion of those losses "doesn't ever really leave you".

Asked whether he would have a hint of envy on Saturday when the Bulldogs run on to the MCG, Grant said: "Hell, yeah."

But he said that hadn't stopped him enjoying the exciting ride the Bulldogs have taken their supporters on this finals series.

"This is a Grand Final, this is the opportunity of playing in a premiership, so purely as a player that's something you would love to have achieved," Grant said.

"Having been on the board for the last four years and now in the role that I'm in (as Bulldogs football director) I'm just enjoying the ride.

"It's fantastic to be involved, but it's no more important and no more of a focus for me than it is for member No. 40,000."

Grant works at the Whitten Oval alongside former players such as Rohan Smith and Daniel Giansiracusa, who also tasted their share of preliminary final disappointments.

The Bulldogs football director said Smith, Giansiracusa and all of the other past players he had spoken with were fully behind the 2016 team as it sought to win the club's second premiership.

"All of the other players I played with in my generation are … just fully supportive and along for the ride as well," Grant said.

Bulldogs president Peter Gordon has seen plenty of hard times in his two stints at the club.

Gordon helped save from the club from a merger with Fitzroy when he first took over as president in late 1989, and after returning in 2013, watched on at the end of the following season as the club farewelled coach Brendan McCartney and captain Ryan Griffen.

The Bulldogs president said the club's ability to make a Grand Final just two years after the tumultuous end to 2014 was largely due to Beveridge and captain Robert Murphy.

"I do lay claim to saying very early on in 2015 that in Luke Beveridge and Robert Murphy we had two of the outstanding captains and coaches of the modern era," Gordon said.

"I did expect that we would make dramatic improvements."