After facing adversity early in the season, an undermanned West Coast Eagles defied the odds to clinch a compelling 13-point victory against Collingwood on Saturday, which forward Josh Kennedy credits to the West Coast's younger contingent of players.

Missing key components to the Eagles' engine room, including skipper Luke Shuey, Elliot Yeo, Tim Kelly and Dom Sheed, West Coast's depth was challenged against the in-form Magpies, but the Eagles' younger onballers stood up to seal a classic victory.

Xavier O'Neill (24 disposals), Patrick Naish (23), Connor West (16) and Hugh Dixon (16) were all influential in the midfield, with O'Neill the most experienced at AFL level with 16 games in Eagles' colours.

In a dampener to their first win of the season, West coast were dealt a further injury blow with star ruck Nic Naitanui expected to spend a number of rounds on the sidelines with a medial ligament injury suffered late in the contest.

"It was pretty exciting just to see our younger guys come through and really start to understand our game system and play the way they are and play their role," Kennedy told 6PR.

"I think all those little things that you go through and you see with a lot of the group over the past three-to-five weeks and then to finally get that win it was one relief, but also it was pretty exciting.

"There was a few momentum swings, there has been in a lot of the games this year, I suppose in the group we kind of stuck fat and stuck to what we needed to do, and we kicked pretty straight as well which does make a difference toward the back end.

"It's a bit disappointing for Nic and us in the group when teammates go down, but I'm sure he'll come back bigger and stronger in the back half of the year.

"And it just gives another opportunity for another young fella to step up, young Bailey Williams will probably play a lot more ruck.

"We've seen young Hugh Dixon come in and do his role in the ruck and play pretty well, so it's exciting for them to get that opportunity."

Four-time All Australian Jeremy McGovern was also at his best, earning a perfect 10 in the AFL Coaches Association votes from the Eagles' Adam Simpson and Collingwood's Craig McRae.

Finishing the day with 11 intercepts, McGovern and defenders Tom Barrass and Shannon Hurn were the difference keeping Collingwood’s forwards in check despite 61 inside 50s for the Pies.

Watching from home, Yeo praised McGovern's work rate, with the key defender leading from the back across the season.

"It's hard to stop 'Gov' when he's playing such fantastic football," Yeo told 96FM.

"You try different ways of getting inside 50 and using the ball, so I guess when 'Gov's' playing really well and reading the play along with Tommy and a few others back there, 'Bunga', it's hard to stop.

"So it's a credit to them, but it also probably kept us in the game for a fair bit, through passages of play throughout that game.

"In the end, we were able to capitalise on that, and it came off the back of a fair bit of 'Gov's' work."

West Coast now prepare to take on Sydney in the HMAS Sydney II clash, with Yeo hopeful of a return after playing managed minutes in a WAFL practice match on Saturday.

"I've got to put my hand up, we've got main training tonight so if I get through that, I'm sure it'll look likely," he said.

"It's hard to crack into a side when they've come off of a win, so we'll have to wait and see, it's going to be interesting.

"There could be a fair few coming back as well, so there's a few things that certain players need to tick off, I'm one of them."