WESTERN Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade believes his side was overawed by the occasion of its first final against Hawthorn on Friday night.

Eade said his players were caught in the bright lights of the competition's first final and made uncharacteristic errors on the big stage.

"We were beaten by a far better side," he said after the 51-point loss to the Hawks.

"It looks like we got overawed by the whole occasion, which is disappointing. I think their pressure was very good but there was a lot of inferred pressure where we made mistakes we shouldn't have made.

"It was very disappointing, and certainly from the club point of view and the supporters' point of view, it was a very poor performance.

"A player like Matthew Boyd, who's been such a good player, I've never seen him fumble and make basic errors like he did tonight. He's one of our leaders, and he works so hard but just some basic stuff that you know players don't normally do.

"And it's not through lack of effort with him because he's such a hard worker; you just know it's being overawed by the situation."

However, Eade said he was confident his group would be able to recover from the loss in time for its next assignment against the winner of the Sydney Swans-North Melbourne clash.

"I think it's as much mental as anything," he said.

"We just had a lot of players down tonight, but apart from that it was just the mistakes that we made.

"We fiddled round with the ball, which is something we didn't practice this week.

"That was very disappointing, but this group has got a double chance and that's why we finished third. The Kangaroos last year lost their first final by 106 points."

Eade refrained from giving his players a verbal spray post-match, and will wait until the dust has settled on the result before sitting down to analyse it. 

"I don't think you can put it completely behind you. There's a few players who have individually got some responsibility and have got to answer some questions," he said.

"We certainly didn't do that tonight. I think it needs to be done in the cool light of day when the emotion is taken out of it."

He emphasised the players needed to be accountable for the performance.

"Our supporters will want that and it was extremely disappointing. It's not what we want to stand for or what we're about as a footy club," he said.

"We've all got to take some responsibility. The players have to stand up and be counted, and whether we can make some changes … Williamstown play on Sunday so they've only got a five-day break.

"It maybe ties our hands to a certain degree, but if kids like Harbrow, Hill and Higgins play as well as they did tonight and can show the way, it's good enough for everyone else in the side to do it."

Lindsay Gilbee (corked calf) and Robert Murphy (corked knee) are expected to be fine to play next weekend.