“The message to the players at half time was more about (being) positive,” he said.
“I thought our effort was good, I thought we were working hard, but just not executing well.
“It was more about reinforcement – that if we could just use the ball better and get our standards of execution up we could turn the game around.
“We weren’t that far behind at half time. It was just a matter of maintaining that work rate. Even though it wasn’t high scoring it was a fairly frenetic first half and I think both teams were fairly fatigued.”
Eade said that both sides made simple errors just before half time as the pace began to take its toll.
“Some of the errors weren’t under pressure. Just missing targets by hand. And Essendon kicked straight. We just needed to be a bit more precise with our use of the ball. I thought our defensive side of the game was good but we were missing easy targets with hands and missing some basic goals,” he said
He said that the Bulldogs were not following instruction on how he wanted the ball delivered into attack.
“We opened it up in the first quarter but then we tried to hit it too short. In the end we attacked them deep which we wanted to do.
“We sent the message out halfway through the first quarter. Once we started to attack them deep, (Scott) Welsh and (Mitch) Hahn were able to mark the ball.”
Eade praised his defenders and credited them with being the base on which the win was built.
“I thought all our back six were terrific. Lake was good, Tommy (Williams) was terrific, Morris was good , I thought Harbrow did well. Hargrave was probably a bit flat compared to other weeks.”
He said the team’s self belief in its fitness was another key factor.
“I’ve got no doubt the belief in the fitness is very good . We had a very solid pre-season Bill Daverin has brought new methods, some new types of running, and resistance work that the guys haven’t been exposed to before.
He had emphasised that Essendon was the best third-quarter team in the competition.
“Their last quarters are pretty good so wed spoken about a challenge about our fitness levels , but also our mental ability to push while you are fatigued. I thought our players answered that challenge very well.”
He said that he hadn’t had time to think about next week’s match of the round with St Kilda.
“We’ve got a full list and obviously players are in form but it’s pleasing we are playing some hard tough footy. Against the team that’s on top of the ladder that is what we need to produce next week.”
