West Coast Eagles senior coach Michael Prior believed his young side took another step forward in their three-point defeat to Fremantle at Optus Stadium.  

The Eagles came agonisingly close to their first-ever victory against their cross-town rivals after building on a superb first term performance, dominating pressure and clearances around the footy.  

“I think as a young developing team we took a step forward today,” Prior said.  

“Especially in the first half, our pressure around the footy, dominating clearance and time in our front half, however we couldn’t capitalise early.”  

Fremantle took away their first win of the year after facing some classy opponents that resulted in three losses and a draw heading into the RAC Derby.  

It was a back and forth battle all day with the margin never exceeding 10 points throughout with inspired performances from West Coast’s Isabella Lewis and Fremantle’s Hayley Miller.

“We were in the fight against a very good team,” Prior said.  

“Fremantle are still a good team despite their first win, and they have some very good players so credit to them and I was impressed by the performance we delivered.”

Season seven newcomers Mikayla Western, Jaide Britton and debutant Abbygail Bushby all had impressive performances in a good sign of growth from the Eagles’ young players.  

“We are developing well, more of our players are starting to contribute consistently," Prior said

“Mikayla has been fantastic for us, that was her fifth game of the year which is really exciting we see a lot of upside from her.

“The last couple of weeks we’ve been able to push her forward and play her in the front half.”

Bushby had a day to remember kicking a goal on debut in front of 6000 fans at Optus Stadium as the youngster made the most of her first game.

“I thought Bushby was great today as a midfielder she was up against some pros in there and she held her own,” Prior said.  

“To kick a set shot goal at Optus Stadium she would have been under a bit of pressure and had a lot of nerves, I thoughts she handled the occasion really well."

Despite going down West Coast took a lot of confidence out of their fourth ever RAC Derby and will look to take those positives into Hawthorn next week.

“I think next week is an opportunity to go out and play another four quarters of hard and tough footy again,” Prior said.  

“If we do results will take care of themselves, I think over the last two weeks we’ve improved in that area.

“I’ll sit back and have a good look at Hawthorn’s game over the course of the weekend and work towards getting ourselves a victory.”