RODNEY Eade may have been on the wrong side of a tight nine-point result at AAMI Stadium, but the Western Bulldogs coach was upbeat about the way his team has regained momentum after struggling with concentration for the past month.

The Bulldogs have known they will meet Hawthorn in week one of the finals since round 18.
 
“It’s probably been even longer than that really ... we probably knew seven or eight weeks ago. We’ve been in a holding pattern for six or seven weeks really," Eade said after the narrow loss to Adelaide.
 
“People have been critical of us, but for three quarters of most games we’ve been pretty good.
 
“We’ve dropped away in concentration at various stages, which may be to do with that holding pattern; the fact that it’s not life and death for us.

Eade believes the recent form of the Dogs is encouraging, despite recording only two wins from the past seven games.
 
“I thought we played some good footy last week. And we spoke about it today, what we wanted to get out of the game was our ability to hang tough, our willingness to put pressure on the opposition, and preparedness to cope with any pressure from the opposition, because we knew they’d be pretty fired up.
 
“I think (we got) a tick in those three boxes. So that, going into the finals, coupled with our form last week, gives us a real boost in confidence.”
 
Eade said ruckman Ben Hudson, who was a late withdrawal from the team, missed due to hamstring soreness.
 
“It was a bit tight coming over and he had a bit of a jog yesterday and we thought it’s not worth the risk,” Eade said.
 
Hudson’s hardness at the contest was missed, but the Bulldogs coach didn’t think it was the deciding factor in the match.
 
“Maybe … (but) I don’t think that was the difference in the end. I think it was a pretty good game; pretty tight. Both teams made a lot of mistakes, which you’d expect in the wet, and maybe just at crucial times they just had a little bit more poise than we did.
 
“It was the sort of game that was great for us going into a finals series. Against a very good side I certainly thought we held our own, which was good."