SEVEN years without a premiership.
 
In simple terms, these five words explain why the Western Bulldogs have parted ways with coach Rodney Eade.
 
It's the same duration Eade spent at the Sydney Swans before he resigned midway through 2002, and it's the same length of time premiership coaches David Parkin and Paul Roos said it took for their message to become stale with their own players.
 
Although Eade said he hadn't 'lost' his, even he acknowledged in an interview with afl.com.au last August there was always a danger things could naturally turn sour as the seventh year approached.

When Eade left the Swans, he was halfway through his seventh year at the helm.

This week, when the Bulldogs announced his contract would not be renewed ahead of 2012, it was three weeks out from the end of his seventh season at Whitten Oval.

Last year, Eade said he was working on making his message to his players different and was more than aware he needed to keep things "fresh".

He said then he loved coaching and - with tongue a little in cheek  - it helped him "jump out of the house and skip to work".

Eade claimed the group he had at the Dogs was different from the Swans, which he left midway through 2002 after a two-point loss to Geelong that was the team's sixth defeat in a row.

"I think there's an expiry date if everything stays the same and the message stays the same and you stay the same," he told afl.com.au just over 12 month ago.

"People get sick of that. What you've got to be able to do is not so much change your game plan but make some alterations and make the message different. You delegate a bit more.

"You change and alter things and it keeps people interested. I'd like to think it's longer than seven years at the moment."

There's no doubt injuries have cruelled the team this year, particularly in the second half of the season, and one of its most important players - two-time All Australian Brian Lake - never got going.

And, Eade wasn't entirely to blame for this season, where the Dogs lost eight of their first 11 games, but admitted at Wednesday's press conference he hadn't been as equipped as he could have to cope with the number of sides using forward presses.

The Dogs struggled to get the ball forward, with Eade conceding the loss of Jarrod Harbrow to Gold Coast, Ryan Hargrave to a long-term foot issue, Lindsay Gilbee to form issues and eventually Lake to unmanageable knee soreness robbed the team of run out of defence.

And, the pacy three players recruited from other clubs - Nathan Djerrkura, Justin Sherman and Patrick Veszpremi - have not had the impact the Dogs desired. Veszpremi hasn't even played senior football.

It was about round 12 - after the loss to St Kilda - when Eade started to tweak the game plan and the wheel turned, slightly, with the Dogs winning the next four. Everything seemed back on track.

Then, in round 17, they faced North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium in a match they were expected to win, but lost by 31 points, despite the Roos' previous 20-goal hiding at the hands of Collingwood.

Eade said afterwards the players hadn't listened to instructions, they handballed too much, and he dropped Sam Reid and Josh Hill the following week with Robert Murphy leaving the line-up with a groin injury.

It unravelled from there. Adam Cooney, who had 18 touches against the Kangaroos, had six less against the Swans the following week and then left the side with knee soreness. He won't play again this season.

Shaun Higgins also hurt a knee that week and wasn't available again until round 21, and Djerrkura injured his Achilles and missed one.

After making eight changes ahead of the West Coast game in round 19 - which went up to nine when Dale Morris withdrew with groin soreness - the new-look team appeared to have one bullet left when they ran out on Etihad Stadium.

They hit the front in the last quarter after trailing by 50 points in the third, but weren't able to hang on and lost by eight points.

Saturday night's 49-point loss to Essendon, where Morris' season ended after breaking his leg, confirmed the Dogs would not play finals and would not have the chance to improve on the three-straight preliminary appearances between 2008 and 2010.

Before the start of the season, president David Smorgon went on The Footy Show and said the coach who had then taken two clubs - first the Swans and then the Dogs - from the lower rungs of the ladder to deep in the finals needed to make a Grand Final to gain a pass mark.

He later denied a Grand Final berth would be the only thing that would save Eade, and it had been more a comment directed at the club.

He again discredited the context these comments on Wednesday when the club and Eade announced the parting of ways.

"I believed firmly, and the board believed firmly, that action speak louder than words, and this pass mark has been blown out of all proportion," Smorgon said.

Still, after three failed bids to make the Grand Final, it was only a natural expectation for the Dogs to get there this season.

Eade is a well-liked character. He has a good relationship with the media, sometimes ringing journalists for information on upcoming opponents.

He has a sound relationship with his players; typified by the fact on Wednesday, just hours after being told his contract would not be renewed, he was out in the cold taking training at Whitten Oval.

He was asked by Smorgon and CEO Simon Garlick if he wanted to coach the remaining three games of the season, and didn't want to consider it until he had spoken to the players.

After 12 of the team's senior members told him they wanted him to coach on until the end of round 24, Eade told the pair he would - but reserved the right to change his mind if it becomes too emotionally taxing.

He also consulted with Parkin (president of the AFL coaches' association and his former coach), and former Hawthorn teammate Peter Schwab, to see if he should continue to the end of the season.

Parkin, who is one of Eade's mentors, said it would be "fair to say that he would have had two different suggestions".

As the seventh year of Eade's tenure at Whitten Oval comes to a close, he says he feels he didn't lose the players after first becoming aware of the dangers of that a year ago this month.

"I still think I had the players, if that's the right phrase," he said on Wednesday.

"That was the feedback I was getting from the leadership group and I suppose the indication is that 12 of the senior players today wanted me to keep going.

"I gave them the option and said I was happy to walk away but they still wanted me involved.

"I still had the players but whether the message was getting through, I don't know, but we've had a lot of injuries and different things."

Eade leaves the club having made lasting impressions on players. Cooney, drafted in 2003, has become a harder worker. Lake, despite the intriguing relationship between the two, is a dual All Australia. Ryan Griffen has improved his consistency, Matthew Boyd and Daniel Cross have become leaders, Liam Picken has prospered as a tagger after being plucked from the VFL and Barry Hall got a second chance at football and accelerated the development of the club's young forwards. 

This year, eight players have made their debuts with Ayce Cordy and potentially Jason Tutt to come.

The fact the senior players want Eade to remain shows he at least had their respect - right until the end.

Ultimately, despite the fact he said he was "not shattered or angry, but bitterly disappointed", and thought he still had "a lot to offer", he fell victim to one of the main things he'd tried to address.

He changed the message, but sometimes, no amount of alteration can cover the fact the same person is telling it. 

Smorgon said it was "time for change", and sometimes, through no real fault of anyone, there is simply no other way.