With the temperature nudging 30 degrees, the Eagles - led by a dominant performance by ruckman Dean Cox – led at every break to hand the Bulldogs their first taste of defeat for 2009.
Eade dismissed concerns about the impact of the weather and the trip west on his players, instead pointing to skill and discipline errors as the reason for the defeat.
“There’s absolutely no excuse, (the weather) was the same for both sides,” Eade said.
“Both sides were fatigued; I just think they coped with it better than we did.
“It was disappointing (and) obviously, full credit to the Eagles. They played very well and deserved to win.
“They certainly play better here, there’s no doubt about that. But from our point of view, we didn’t fear coming here.”
Eade said the Eagles deserved credit for punishing the high number of turnovers made by the usually crisp Bulldogs.
“Just the number of turnovers at times hurt us,” he said.
“Even some without pressure, and late in quarters . Late in the first quarter they scored three goals in three minutes - it was probably about the difference in the end.
“They scored eight to half time and most were from turnovers, so they obviously capitalised and were able to bake us out the back.
“They were pretty disciplined in the way they corralled our players. At the same time, for whatever reason, we tended to be a bit slow with our ball movement. I think we could have played-on a lot more than we did.
“After half time, we hit the post three times and we ‘nearly this’ and we ‘nearly that’. But in this game, you’ve got to take your chances, and we weren’t able to.”
Eade said the Bulldogs would have a lighter week on the training track and be ready to rebound against Carlton next Sunday.
“The competition is very even and teams are going to oscillate,” he said.
“The Eagles were poor last week and good this week, so it’s going to happen. It’s just part of the competition; there’s no easy games. I’ve got no doubt we’ll be able to bounce back.”
Eade dismissed concerns that Jason Akermanis may have suffered an injury, and said he remained hopeful Robert Murphy and Adam Cooney would be available for the Carlton clash.
