WESTERN Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade believes his players can take consolation from Sunday’s 28-point loss to St Kilda after bringing an impressive level of endeavour to the contest.

Eade was pleased with the way his players "hung in there" after the margin drifted out to 47 points early in the final term, with the Bulldogs fighting back to win the last quarter by two goals.

"We can take some positives out of it. They're on the top of the ladder, and St Kilda and Geelong are going to be the benchmark at this stage," Eade said after the game. 

"We can take some consolations. Sometimes you don't, but I think today we can because we hung in there. Even in the third quarter when we were getting beaten, I thought our endeavour was OK.

"It blew out at one stage, but I couldn't fault their endeavour at the contest.

"We won stoppages, the contested ball was good, and the opposition's pressure was fantastic.

"From that as well, they won a lot of loose ball. The uncontested ball was really the difference, apart from their pressure.

"We had 46 inside 50s and we just didn't make the most of that."

The Bulldogs have now lost three in a row for the first time since the latter stages of the 2007 season, when they dropped the last four games of the year.

Eade predicted his side's immediate fortunes would soon turn around if the players continued to apply themselves to the contest.

"If you bring the endeavour and effort each week, even if you're down on form, the form will turn around," he said.

"If you don't bring that to the table, it's a bit risky and it's a toss of the coin if it does or not.

"If we have that endeavour and that work rate, then a win isn't too far away.

"If we got blown out of the park today with a lack of endeavour, you'd start to worry about it."

Eade said late withdrawal Tom Williams was ruled out as early as Tuesday last week after hurting his foot during the Dogs' round five loss to Carlton. Andrejs Everitt was his replacement.

"We didn't know who to bring in. We were just seeing who was going to be better suited, so we left the decision as late as we could," he said.

"He snapped his plantar fascia, so that will only be one week. He just had a bit of swelling and bruising because of that, but he was running today, so he'll be right next week."

Overall, Eade said the Saints have "improved a lot" and were able to force the Dogs into making mistakes that saw their forwards denied clean ball.

"The main thing is their pressure, and having a quality forward always helps, having a target there," he said.

"Their pressure was fantastic, and they've done that every week. We've had the most inside 50s against them this year so far, so I think our willingness to play on and take the game on was pleasing."