BULLDOGS coach Rodney Eade says Friday night’s win over Essendon proved that his young guns can step up to replace his seasoned veterans.

For years, the Bulldogs were led by Chris Grant, Scott West, Brad Johnson, Rohan Smith and Luke Darcy, but with three retired, one injured and another making little contribution in the win, Eade says the Bulldogs have a bright future, particularly in the midfield.

“We’ve laid plans for the future to replace Darcy and Grant. Now we’ve got to make plans to replace Scott West, whether that’s 12 months or two years, that we can’t rely on Scott to be our main midfielder,” Eade said.

“You need to rotate some players through there. [Ryan] Griffen, we have given some more game time and was reasonable tonight. [Adam] Cooney is stepping up a bit, there are other players we’re throwing through there.”

Johnson played up the ground and had his second quiet night in two weeks, but Eade said this only gave a chance for his lesser lights to step up.

“He had one of those nights, Brad. Everything he touched turned to clay. It’s good to win when there’s no real influence from him... that’s a pleasing sign from the group to be able to mature,” he said.

The Bulldogs coach said Johnson was likely to spend more time in the midfield as Scott Welsh gets comfortable in the forward line.

 “He’s a good runner. He’s got good pace and a good engine. He won a couple of stoppages at the centre bounce and he did a couple of things. He’s the captain of the team and he’s got to lead from the front as far as his effort goes and there’s no doubt he does that.

 “We’ve said at the start it is an option for Brad to go in there. The forward line at times wasn’t functioning that well but we were still able to manufacture goals,” he said.

Eade said the Bulldogs’ early-season success could be attributed to having a fit list, which was not the case last year.

“So-called experts have got to look at deeper reasons why teams do really well or really poorly. Last year we had four or five of our best runners and we had another four or five players who hadn’t had a pre-season. In the end we couldn’t run. If you can have a good pre-season and get the fitness base behind you it just helps.”

Eade said his side’s six-goal final quarter came because of tight disposal.

“At three-quarter time I spoke to our guys and thought it was that we were making silly errors and they were capitalising on them. We turned the ball over and we conceded the other way. They were basic errors, guys who were good kicks putting it on teammates’ heads and fumbling.”