Key forward Josh Kennedy has labelled West Coast’s 63-point loss against Sydney as “disappointing” and said the team’s collective effort must improve against Port Adelaide.

The Eagles were upstaged early by the energized Swans side in round five, with the half-time inside 50 differential (-29) and number of scoring shots (-18) proving costly.

But Kennedy said there’s still time to bridge the gap on the Eagles’ 1-4 start, with 17 rounds remaining in a long season.

“It was collectively as a team that we didn’t fill and execute our roles and that’s what cost us,” Kennedy told 6PR.

“Our backs were under the pump all day, we couldn’t get the ball moving forward, couldn’t get it inside 50, think we only had 10 in that first half.

“Little things that just break down in a bit of our system and our chain, Sydney were able to expose it pretty well and they were able to score pretty heavily.

“We’ve had so many changes, we’ve had our young guys come into the side, guys still learning what it takes to be at AFL level, which aren’t any excuses, but whether you win or lose you still want to have that effort.

“We’re still getting a bit of that youth in, it’s only round five, there’s still 17 more games to go, so anything can happen.”

West Coast will now dig deep ahead of a Saturday twilight clash against Port at Adelaide Oval, where the Eagles have won all five contests between the sides.

But Kennedy warned the match would be a tough battle, with the winless Power just as desperate to steady their season as West Coast.

“There’s never an easy game in the AFL, it’s going to be a big challenge for us over there on their home deck,” Kennedy said.

“As much as they haven’t won a game, we’ve only won one and got pretty embarrassed in the week just gone.

“It’s going to be a tough battle, we’ve just got to make sure we get that consistency and that synergy between the group when we’re playing.

“If that effort’s there we can hopefully take it up to Port and come away with the win, but it’s no easy game, we know it’s going to be a tough challenge over there.”

Returning midfielder Elliot Yeo said players needed to build some continuity ahead of the clash against the 2021 preliminary finalists.

“It’s always a good contest when we play Port over there. It’s going to be a good game, it’s going to be close and I’m looking forward to it,” Yeo told 96FM.

“We know what we need to do to get better, and that’s basically all we can do now, we’ve got to hit the track, train what we need to do to get better.

“We’ve had a fair bit of changes as well over the past couple of weeks, if we can get more synergy in the team hopefully that will be a lot better.”