WESTERN Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade believes his players had too much time off over the mid-season break, and were "mentally relaxed" against North Melbourne on Sunday as a consequence.
Eade said his players' schedule, which saw them train on Wednesday and Friday after the Port Adelaide game before having the following weekend entirely off, influenced their drop in intensity against the Kangaroos.
"Looking back, I think maybe we gave them too big a break," he said, after the 22-point win at the MCG.
"Mentally, they get relaxed. People ask the question; 'Do we overtrain them?' And the answer is no.
"They trained twice in eight days the previous week, and then we had three reasonable training sessions this week.
"Their skills were poor on Monday. You hear some clubs have five, six, seven days off, but no doubt, it takes their focus away. Mentally, they go into relaxed mode."
He said the Dogs were not surprised at the attacking style the Kangaroos employed, and expected them to be enthusiastic under interim coach Darren Crocker in his first game at the helm.
"That's what happens with a new coach, even if there's no directive," he said.
"The perceived pressure is off. There mightn't be any real pressure from a coach but the perceived pressure is that everyone is on the same starting line.
"You tend to get that, and we always knew that. A few times they were able to run forward and created a lot of opportunities.
"We were off a bit with our pressure and our intensity."
Eade said the Kangaroos' loss of Ben Warren to a broken leg in the first quarter meant the difference in the match-winning final term was the Dogs' level of running ability.
"Them having one player down helped, and our guys have got confidence in their fitness," he said.
"Our fourth quarters have been very good the whole year. It gives the players more confidence at three-quarter time that that was going to be the case, and once we were able to split the line, the players were able to take their chances.
"We still created another four or five chances close to goal and, for whatever reason, the players wanted to fiddle and muck around with it."
He conceded it was a largely untidy game to watch as a whole, and compared his players to those in a Washington Generals/Harlem Globetrotters match in the first half as they 'invented new ways to turn the ball over'.
"I don't think that will go into the end-of-season highlights reel on the television," he said.
"We were poor. Full credit to the Kangas, they played well, but they made a lot of errors as well. It was a very error-riddled game.
"Our kicking efficiency at half-time was 45 per cent. It was disgraceful. We certainly created enough opportunities going forward but, for whatever reason, it seems a lot of teams that have come off a break have been flat or poor afterwards.
"We're another one of those so we certainly need to get our act together over the next few weeks."
Eade said defender Tom Williams played at Williamstown on the weekend but needed a "couple more weeks" in the VFL before being considered for senior selection.
