After a disappointing loss to the Western Bulldogs, West Coast Eagles’ senior coach Michael Prior pointed out key learnings taken from his side's performance but credited the heart shown by his team to never let off the pressure.  

The hosts were in the game but were unable to convert enough opportunities as the Bulldogs kicked away in the first half.

Eventually the Bulldogs were able to take advantage of a fatigued West Coast side coming into the fourth quarter and ran the rest of the game out through the use of short kicks and uncontested possessions.  

“We did a few things right early, we knew the game the Bulldogs wanted to play being that short uncontested game,” Prior said.  

“We were on top of it most of the game then in the last quarter they took 20 uncontested marks and it just got away from us from that point of view.

“The challenge for us is to find ways to score a bit more, we are getting opportunities then not converting in front of goal then letting them go inside 50 to score easily.”  

“It’s something we will continue to look at and work to fix and get on top of pretty quickly.”  

West Coast boasts a massive amount of potential in their young line up but Prior admits there is still some key areas that still need work in the team structure in particularly through the Eagles’ inside 50.    

“We’ve got talent in our front half, we just need to work a little bit harder when we get the ball up front,” he said.  

“But that will come, we’ve got a young group at the moment and we are still learning and improving.

“The key thing for us is to get more inside 50s.”

Captain Emma Swanson led the front in the physical tussle finishing with a game-high 28 disposals, 12 contested possessions and eight clearances.  

As All-Australian selections loom Prior reinforced the impact Swanson’s had on the team this year and on the club since arriving at the Eagles.  

“Since I’ve been at the club, I’ve seen her drive this group and set the standard both on and off the field and maybe sometimes she doesn’t get the credit she deserves,” he said.  

“Internally between the four walls of this footy club she gets a lot of credit for what she does and she deserves that.

“She’s the captain of our group for a reason and as I’ve said before she leads our group really well, but she also leads our entire club.

“We are rapt to have her and really happy with the way she’s gone about her footy and for our younger players being able to learn from Emma is a huge bonus of them.”