Luke Beveridge knows his inexperienced Western Bulldogs outfit has the quality to take it up to the top sides, but admits there is impatience to start winning more regularly after watching his team fall away badly against West Coast on Sunday.
The Dogs took it up to the reigning premiers in the opening half and could have been closer than 11 points behind after booting 4.7 and wasting some golden opportunities.
But they were blown away after the main break, with the Eagles piling on 14 goals to six to romp to a 61-point belting at Optus Stadium.
Beveridge's men have beaten top-eight contenders Richmond and Brisbane this year but gone down to lowly Gold Coast, Carlton and North Melbourne in a frustrating season.
A lack of experience, particularly at either end of the ground, hasn't helped their consistency and Beveridge will go to the bye seeking answers to get the season back on track after dropping to 4-7.
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"We've had some good wins against a couple of good sides, so we know we can do it (compete against the best)," Beveridge said.
"When we sit in a room post-game and ask ourselves why we couldn't get a little bit more from ourselves and we go and do a bit of soul-searching … I think we are learning, we're definitely learning all the time.
"The boys sit in there and are quite honest with each other. We are on a journey.
"As I just said to them, though, in this game and in this league, you can't have a four-or five-year crystal ball of where you might be. It's now and it's next year.
"We want to do well now, and so there is that impatience.
"They feel it which is good and I know our supporters feel it.
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"So we will keep going to the well and looking for those hooks to be at our best and beat sides like West Coast Eagles.
"But we were a fair bit off it this afternoon, unfortunately."
The Dogs were competitive through the midfield and only lost clearances by two and contested ball by three.
But the Eagles' quality of centre clearances was telling in the second half and twin towers Jack Darling and Josh Kennedy combined for nine goals.
"It's symptomatic of a bigger problem up the field isn't it, to let them out so clean and in the first half we were able to contain that and looked OK and gave ourselves a look at it around our own goal mouth," Beveridge said.
"But then when it broke down through either turnover or their mids just getting on top and their backs intercepting a bit too well, we started to feel the pinch.
"Their centre bounce stuff in the third quarter and how clean they came out of there, started to cause us some problems.
"They were really efficient and kicked straight, so it was the flip side of what we were doing.
"Sometimes it's hard when you are asking your players when they have just started at this level to find a spike in different things.
"The Eagles have some inexperienced players themselves, so we're in the same boat, their physicality and maturity just got us as the game wore on."
