FOR the man who spent seven seasons as coach of the Swans, taking them to the 1996 premiership decider, it was nice to finally get a win back in town.

But for Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade, yesterday's success - his first over his replacement Paul Roos - wasn't about personal satisfaction.

In 2002, Roos took over from Eade midway through the season, and enjoyed amazing success in the role. Eade joined the Bulldogs in 2005, and had lost to his Swans successor on the three previous occasions they had met before finally breaking through yesterday at the SCG.

"People said that after the game [it must be nice to win in Sydney again] but I'm not like that," Eade said. "I'm not an emotional person where it's like we've GOT to beat the old side …

"I think it's more about being able to play well against them [the Swans] up here because it's such a fortress for them."

While they have not lost a game this season, the win was considered significant for the Dogs as many felt this was their true test of toughness against a hard, contested, forceful, tough tackling team like Sydney.

"We were against a team that plays very good contested footy, and we were able to match them in that area, and that was pleasing," Eade said.

"The guys have a fairly strong resolve to be able to play football that way."

Asked if the performance showed the football world they could be that type of team, Eade replied: "No, not really. I'm not one to say you needed to show the footy world, or these people are saying this about us and we've got to prove these people wrong, because that's false motivation.

"It was more about proving to ourselves rather than the football world. What people say about you shouldn't affect the way you go about things.

"This was just another reinforcement of the steps we've taken forward."

The Dogs head into this weekend's break on 26 points from six wins and one draw, sitting just behind fellow undefeated teams Geelong and Hawthorn on the ladder.

But no one is talking up the Dogs in terms of premiership material like they are the two teams ahead of them.

"That doesn't worry us at all. We'll just keep playing the same footy we do and people will eventually take notice," Bulldog Adam Cooney said.

"Our contested footy has been up there with the best of them this year.

"Things have been really positive and there's a lot of belief in the group.

"We are playing good footy at the moment and we just need to keep that up."