RODNEY Eade suggested last night that Lindsay Gilbee had been lucky to win a place in the Bulldogs' round-five line-up after a below-par fortnight from the All Australian defender leading up to yesterday's game.

"Lindsay's probably struggled now for two weeks. To be honest, if we had players, because we've got a few injuries … he might have been up for selection with a question mark on him, Lindsay," Eade said, while also making mention of Ryan Griffen's down day against the Tigers.

Only last week, Gilbee had expressed disappointment about being left out of the 40-man Victorian squad that will form a representative team later in the season.

As well as being disappointed by his own omission, Gilbee said he was especially surprised that his teammate, Daniel Cross, had been overlooked by selectors.

"I think he was ambushed a bit there," Eade said after yesterday's game.

"I think he was more (talking) about Crossy. His (Gilbee's) first couple of weeks were OK but he's been down the last couple of weeks, so if he had any chance, it's probably gone now."

Midfielder Griffen, who was outstanding against St Kilda in round three and among his team's best players again in the round-four victory, finished with 12 possessions in yesterday's draw after not managing to register a statistic in the opening term.