Complete win best for years: Eade
Rodney Eade says his team’s victory over Port Adelaide on Saturday night was its most emphatic for years
The Dogs increased their lead at every change and ended the match with a resounding eight-goal-to-two final term.
Eade said his side's dominance across the entire game was its best for a couple of seasons.
"There were a couple of games a few years ago where we won by 100 points, but this win was for four quarters," he said at TIO Stadium on Saturday night.
"We'd spoken about that early in the week that even though we were third on the ladder, we were sixth for most numbers of quarters won.
"We've been reasonably inconsistent during the year but we thought we'd been building since the Adelaide game and that was probably our best performance so far."
Eade said he felt the even contribution, which included 13 individual goal-kickers, was the strength of his side.
"We don't rely on Johnno or Aka or Murph or whoever they are, and I thought four of our younger players were our better players tonight, which was good," he said.
"So we get an even contribution and that's probably what we're about, the selflessness and players playing their role, which I think has been a real positive."
He was also pleased with the Dogs' pressure across the field, which saw them restrict Port Adelaide's ability to use uncontested ball to their advantage.
"Our pressure was consistent for four quarters and we spoke about that probably going into the Adelaide game, that we needed to lift in that area," he said.
"I think we're starting to do that, we're starting to keep teams' uncontested marks down and Port are very good at that. We kept them under 80 tonight, which was pleasing."
He praised defender Liam Picken for his effective shut-down role on Port midfielder Danyle Pearce, who had just nine disposals.
"It was terrific, wasn't it? Pearce is a player who can cut you up, but I thought Pickers did exceptionally well," he said.
"He's very disciplined and he plays his role and he's certainly very highly regarded by his teammates."
Eade said the win would help maintain the side's self-belief ahead of a tough run to the finals that featured clashes with Geelong, Hawthorn, St Kilda and Collingwood twice.
"We lost to Geelong by two points so that shows we can compete with those teams," he said.
"Certainly internally we have confidence we can compete with any side, but I think the top two have set the benchmark, we've got to bridge an area there.
"We think we can compete with any side in the competition."