WESTERN Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade believes the club's three-day Community Camp in Darwin last week contributed to Friday night’s sluggish performance against Essendon.

Eade said the top end's humidity combined with community and school visits took its toll on the players, as they struggled to match the Bombers for pace through the middle.

"I don't think [last week's] game itself affected us. Essendon were sharp and played extremely well, so there's no excuses there," Eade said after the 54-point loss.

"We certainly looked flat and we looked slow, and Essendon probably made us look slow, but guys who have generally got a bit of zip and showed a bit in the past were flat.

"Even Brad Johnson – you never see Brad Johnson dropping marks like he dropped tonight.

"So I'm not too sure about the game, but whether it's a combination of being [ in Darwin] a week and the fatigue factor and the travel and being tired, I'm not too sure.

"But, I think if that's the case, you've just got to be a bit stronger mentally to be able to cope with that as well."

Eade said Essendon was "prepared to take some risks" and "set the trend that you've got to be able to play on quickly" with their flashy ball movement and explosive run.

He said the Bombers simply "outworked us", which left the Bulldogs to employ "conservative, 1980s footy" that had little run and flow.

"I don't think we can make many more mistakes than what we did. There were a whole range of things, taking five marks inside 50 and playing on every time, and we could have kicked goals.

"There were other things that were inexplicable at times, like when Brian [Lake] handballing on the line takes a leg break and gets penalised.

"Anything like that seemed to go against us so I think from that fact, we couldn't get much worse.

"[Josh] Hill was a positive, he's really jumped ahead of a few players for selection for round one. I thought he was pretty impressive."

Another positive was the successful return of Will Minson, who managed only six senior games in 2007 owing to form and back problems.

"He's looking fit. I think for his size, he's not going to get a better player to play on than Mal Michael," Eade said.

"I thought he competed pretty well. He kicked one, and he had a mark where he screwed around and unfortunately missed, and Johnno protected the ball for him in the goal square and he didn't go, so there were some opportunities for him.

"I think there's a fair bit of promise there."

Eade confirmed former Crow Scott Welsh, who managed to play about half the game, was struggling with a virus, while stingray victim Jarrad Grant is resting following his discharge from hospital on Friday morning.

"I haven't spoken to Jarrad. He was still reasonably dopey [today],” Eade said.

"He's a bit morphined up, but he was sent home to rest so I'll speak to him tomorrow."

The Bulldogs will now travel to Bendigo to take on Melbourne on Friday evening in a NAB Challenge match.