New Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade now has the perfect comeback to Hawthorn director and former AFL team-mate Dermott Brereton.

Last month, on the night Eade took the Bulldogs job over coaching his old club, Brereton pointed out that would involve missing out on Hawthorn's new facilities at Waverley Park.

The announcement of a $19.5 million upgrade at the Bulldogs' Whitten Oval headquarters was the perfect comeback to Brereton's good-natured jibe.

"There was a comment by a certain director who said something about that, he said `Rodney Eade will never know what it's like to have an $8 million facility'," Eade said.

"Well, I won't - I will have a $20 million facility."

Eade quickly added not all the money would go to player amenities, with community resources to be a major part of the Whitten Oval precinct overhaul.

But the Bulldogs club is clearly the biggest winner of this project, which would feature $8 million of support from the federal government.

Prime Minister John Howard was at the announcement, while the state government, the AFL, local councils and the Bulldogs would also contribute.

Bulldogs president David Smorgon said he hoped the opposition would guarantee the funding if it won the October 9 federal election.

"They'll read what's happened and I would be hopeful they understand, certainly as Labour heartland, they would understand the needs," Smorgon said.

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