Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade believes star recruit Barry Hall could take another six to eight matches to fully click into gear with his new AFL club.

Hall was well held in the Dogs' 72-point hammering of Richmond at the MCG on Sunday - Tigers fullback Will Thursfield restricting him to one goal as his side double and triple-teamed the 33-year-old spearhead out of the contest.

The ex-Sydney forward starred for the Dogs in the pre-season competition, prompting the belief that finally adding a key forward would turn the side into genuine premiership contenders.

But Eade resisted temptation to heap pressure on Hall to boot weekly bagfuls of goals, saying it would take time for him and his teammates to become accustomed to each other in the higher intensity home-and-away season.

"I would think it would take a good six to eight weeks in the season to have that sort of symmetry (between Hall and his teammates), and we've got some tough games ahead against good defences," Eade said.

"If he plays his role, if we works hard defensively and he did today - some of his tackles were terrific - and he provides a target for us and a contest, that's all we can ask.

"He'll kick ones and twos and threes and if he kicks 40 goals for us, that'd be great."

Pleasing for the Dogs was that despite the heavy attention, Hall never lost his cool - something that had happened with regularity in Sydney.

His only outburst came when he was benched for the second time in a quarter - Eade laughing that off as the veteran having to get used to a higher spate of rotations than he was accustomed to.

"I think he was more frustrated with that (being benched twice) than anything else - I thought he kept his cool pretty well," Eade said.

"I thought he opened the game up really well in the third quarter with his leading up forward and it accelerated the game our way.

"It's going to take him and us a while ... we've got to get used to Barry leading and there were a few times in the last quarter when we missed him when he was on."

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