The Dogs lost by 29 points, but that margin flattered the Cats, as the Bulldogs blew plenty of opportunities through the second half despite showing superb desperation and effort.
But Eade conceded that brave efforts don't get you to the big dance.
"I think the main lesson is that there are fruits of your labour if you do work hard enough," he said after the game.
"And then the extension of that is that close enough is not good enough.
"I think there's a lot of pride and a spirit in their efforts – a lot of people wrote us off two weeks ago, and we showed last week and this week that there's a fair bit of spirit within the group.
"I think there's a real big positive for the season, but there's something to learn.
"We've got to have the same hard work, the same focus for next year, and we've got to be prepared to take those steps forward again next year."
The Dogs put tremendous pressure on the Cats, resulting in un-Geelong-like turnovers, but suffered from the same issues themselves, and Eade pointed out that to win, chances had to be taken.
"I think we made some goal-kicking errors and some execution errors at times, and I think against good teams you've got to be able to take those chances.
"It's all ifs, buts, maybes – you kick a couple of goals before three-quarter time, you might go in one goal down and then obviously you get a real sniff, and then a couple at the start of the last quarter, but as I said, you've got to be able to take those chances, and we didn't."
Eade said the younger Bulldogs had been terrific.
"He's done well, Jarrod (Harbrow), and I thought Shaun Higgins did a fantastic job on (Darren) Milburn.
"I think our youngsters tonight were good – maybe Josh Hill was down a little bit, but I think Harbrow really took some steps forward. I think the courage shown by all players was fantastic.
"(Ryan) Hargrave, he and (Brian) Lake were sensational in the back half.
"I thought our defence was terrific."
