Rival coaches Ross Lyon and Rodney Eade have defended their teams' roles in last week's AFL snore-fest, but admit they want their players to move the ball quicker.

Commentators and fans roundly criticised last Friday night's game between St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs as an ugly spectacle with too great an emphasis on possession and defence.

Even though the Saints produced a late surge and won by three points, the aggregate score of 95 points was the lowest in 475 games played at Etihad Stadium and the combined 13 goals cost an average 66 disposals apiece.

Lyon admitted St Kilda had to "scrap" since they lost star forward Nick Riewoldt to a hamstring injury in round three, and were not pleased at having managed only 13 goals their past two games.

"Certainly on the weekend we didn't walk off saying `Gee, we're rapt, we kicked seven goals'," he said on Tuesday.

"We were really frustrated as well and I think everyone's going to understand we're working through it."

Eade saw similarities between last week's game and the previous time the clubs played, when the Saints beat the Bulldogs in a low-scoring preliminary final.

"When you're playing for big stakes, teams are going to play a tough brand of footy," he said.

"Certainly from our point of view we'd like to move the ball a bit quicker and we probably fell into the trap a little bit at times.

"But I think you're going to get those games, you'll see in finals games that it's a very tough, tight affair."

While last week's game raises the question of whether coaches and teams at the highest level are beholden to entertain, Lyon and Eade made it clear what their priority was.

"At the end of the day footy coaches are employed by winning games of football," Lyon said.

"I think our last 36 weeks, '09 in particular, we were top-four attack and defence and contested ball last year and we played in a lot of exciting games, a lot of high-scoring games.

"It's probably disappointing if they (critics) are linking us back to (St Kilda's more gritty style of) '07 straight up.

"The Bulldogs are a really good team and we were hanging on, particularly in the second quarter - we couldn't get our hands on the ball."

Eade said sometimes it was necessary for teams to try to shut down opposing sides.

"People making comments unfortunately - and this is not to be disparaging - probably don't understand what teams are doing at certain stages and the intricate details of it," he said.

"It's an opinion-based game, isn't it?"

Meanwhile, Eade rated Bulldogs skipper Brad Johnson a "50-50" prospect at overcoming groin soreness to play Melbourne on Friday night at the MCG.

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