THE WESTERN Bulldogs' faint finals hopes were snuffed out by Saturday night's 49-point loss to Essendon, but Rodney Eade was pleased with the spirit shown by his undermanned team.

The Dogs appeared headed for a blowout loss when they trailed by 55 points early in the third quarter, but they slashed that margin to just 23 points with a stirring five-goal rally before tiring late.

Eade felt the scoreboard didn't do justice to the efforts of his players to fight back from another slow start.

"I felt it was almost like about a four-goal loss - I was pleased with the spirit we showed," Eade said.

"We just got smashed in the first quarter, turned the ball over and got hurt going the other way and we looked slow.

"We butchered the ball and they were quick on the rebound. We didn't have as much pace as them. Where we kicked the ball and what we did when we turned it over really hurt us.

"We fought it out and really did challenge. I think there are a lot of positives to take out of it - especially for some of the younger players. I think they'll learn from that."

Fleet-footed rookie Luke Dahlhaus was a key figure in the third-quarter resurgence with two brilliant goals, while veteran spearhead Barry Hall continued his stellar wind down to retirement with six goals.

"[Hall] looks good, doesn't he? He dropped a couple of chest marks … he could have ended up with nine," Eade said.

"As a club you'd love to have him again next year, but I think he's just getting through each week to be honest. He can see the finish line, but he looked good again tonight."
 
Eade maintained he is yet to formulate a new-look attack without Hall and expressed the hope that it would be his problem to tackle with the club yet to signal its intentions on the seven-year coach who is out of contract at the end of the season.

The Dogs' night took a turn for the worse when Dale Morris was stretchered from the field with 10 minutes to play in the match.

"In the box we thought it might have been a 12-month job, but then we were told maybe [he'd be back] by Christmas," Eade said.

"Depending on what [the scans] find - it's not a compound fracture and it didn't break the skin - they may be able to set it and it could be 12 to 16 weeks.

"Fingers crossed because we haven't got any defenders left."

Eade forecast an even greater focus on youth with finals now out of the equation, but is yet to determine how that will affect the program for injury hindered veterans like Adam Cooney who he said was a possibility to return from a knee injury next week.