WESTERN Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade said "silly mistakes" cost his side as it battled to keep its season alive against St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.

Eade praised his team's effort in the 24-point loss, but said errors had hurt their chances of victory.

"The effort was good, we hung in there and just some silly some mistakes at times cost us," he said.

"There was a minimum of three two-goal turnarounds. The (Nathan) Djerrkura free kick, they went down and got a goal from that, (Ryan) Griffen missed a shot, they went down and got a goal from that, and (Liam) Jones dropped a mark 30 (metres) out and they went and got a goal from that."

Eade was left to ponder what could have been after his team failed to grab its chances. Missed goals to Daniel Cross and Griffen in the last quarter eased the pressure on the Saints as the Bulldogs made a final charge.

With both teams struggling so far this season, Friday night’s match had been labelled a virtual elimination final in the lead-up. Despite the loss, Eade said the Bulldogs would be fighting hard to win every match and let the finals "take care of themselves".

"We are going to try and win every game we can and we will try to win next week; we need to bring the effort we had tonight," he said.

"That is one thing that the youth did tonight, they bring some enthusiasm. The guys who give the effort will get some games. We have to work on the execution and some other things that we obviously need to do better.

"We have played eight debutants now, and we had nine players under 20 games tonight, and we will continue to do that.

"At least we got a four-quarter effort tonight, so most of those players will survive and at least we will get some continuity.

"I was pretty pleased with the effort from most of the guys tonight."

Eade said St Kilda had been able to punish the Bulldogs for poor execution and the over-use of handball.

"They just capitalised on the mistakes that we made. We just have to be better than that," he said.

"I know we are a young side, we had nine guys under 20 games, but we came here to win. That is the disappointing part, we had our chances and could have, should have won."

Despite his disappointment at the use of the advantage rule after Djerrkura had won a free kick in front of goal in the third quarter only for the umpire to call advantage after Cross picked up the ball and took three steps, Eade said it was the Bulldogs who had made the error.  

"I don't like the advantage rule, but under the law, it does seem ‘Crossy’ took a few steps with the ball. It was stupid. Just don't pick the ball up. He knew it was a free kick 20 metres out; just leave the it alone," said Eade.

Eade said the continued absence of Adam Cooney, Brian Lake, Barry Hall and Ryan Hargrave continued to hurt his side.

Cooney, who has played just seven games this year, was a late withdrawal from Friday’s match after suffering further swelling in his injured right knee. While Cooney will continue to play on this year, Eade admitted the time will come when the Brownlow medallist will need surgery - and that time may be before the end of the year.

"At this stage it is okay to keep going, but I will talk to the powers-that-be as to what is best for the club," he said.