Tough Dogs in top four

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Western Bulldogs' coach Rodney Eade says his club proved its mental toughness by ending one of the toughest off-field weeks in its history by thrashing Fremantle and claiming a top four spot on Sunday.

The Dogs scored their fifth win in their past six games and their fourth by ten goals or more in that period by thrashing the Dockers by 82 points to leapfrog the Western Australian club into the top four.

And the Dogs' best performance of the season came at the end of a week in which it dominated the headlines after sacking the outspoken former Brisbane Lions' star Jason Akermanis - which led to the club copping plenty of criticism as well as plenty of praise.

But the Dogs could not have been more emphatic in showing they can still win the premiership without the 2001 Brownlow Medalist and three-time premiership player by destroying the Dockers with a nine-goal opening term.

Eade denied Akermanis' name had been mentioned in the build-up to the game on Sunday but there was no doubt that right from the outset his players were fired up and determined to play their best football.

But he put that down to mental toughness rather than the desire to send out a message to all those that criticised the club for its shock axing of Akermanis.

"It is probably an indication of the mentality of the (playing) group," Eade said.

"If you can-t handle it, you fall away and I think it just showed the strength of the group and probably the strength of the mentality of the group as well."

"They have got strong character and that they are here to win games and here to challenge for the premiership and that is what they want to do."

After the game the entire club - and not just the players - joined together to sing the club song in what was a very pointed message to those that had criticised the club over its handling of Akermanis - who claimed following his dismissal that captain Brad Johnson had orchestrated his exit from the club.

"It just shows as a club and as a team we are pretty united and everyone is on the same page, which is good," Eade said when asked about the Dogs' public show of unity post match.

But Eade, clearly tired of the Akermanis saga, said he did not care whether people agreed or disagreed with the club's decision saying the Bulldogs had moved on and were now focused on another looming finals campaign.

"More our focus today was the opposition and that the top four (spot) was at stake," he said.

"But this performance was the culmination of the last five weeks because we have been building a bit of momentum and playing a lot better and obviously our focus was pretty good today."

"So we just need to keep winning and we just need to maintain that consistency we have built over the last five weeks."

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