RODNEY Eade believes he needs to consider psychology as a second profession to understand why footballers' form can swing so dramatically from week to week.
Speaking after the Bulldogs' 38-point loss to the Crows, Eade said the attitude of his players was different to the one they took into last week's win over Geelong, and it contributed to the different result.
"As a coach, you're supposed to be an amateur psychologist," he said.
"How you can get into the heads of players and see what's actually going on sometimes … I think we've all got an answer or a guess.
"It was interesting. I thought earlier our skill level was terrible, it wasn't so much the pressure. We missed targets.
"Later, it was the pressure and their pressing in the midfield. We ran into positions where we made bad decisions. Whether we weren't tuned in before the game … generally I put skill down to a mental thing.
"Lindsay Gilbee doesn't lose his skill level from one week to the next. It's whether you turn up to play.
"If you're sharp in your tackling, and all facets of your game but especially your skills, it goes to your mindset. But we were just outplayed by a far better team today."
Eade suggested his players may have listened too intently to the positive press they received after their dominating performance over the Cats last weekend, but is still mainly unsure of how things can change in just seven days.
"Why does it happen? You're dealing with human beings – they're worse than horses," he said.
"At least with horses, you can get a whip on them and give them a bit of a crack."The easiest answer to go to is, self-consciously, do we believe our own publicity? We're a young and inexperienced team, we were written up reasonably last week, Adelaide was supposed to have a couple of injuries.
"Do players believe all that hype, which is absolute garbage in today's footy? You warn them against it, but I think we were beaten in all facets today."
On a positive note, Eade heralded the performance of skilful defender Jordan McMahon, who had 26 disposals, and young gun Shaun Higgins, who kicked three goals and was the side's top scorer.
"McMahon was our best player. He played very well, and really tried well all day," he said.
"His skills early on let him down, he made two or three bad execution errors, not so much decision but execution, which cost us.
"He worked extremely hard and provided some drive when he went in the middle. He was clearly our best, and I thought (Shaun) Higgins was our next best."
