1. Elite sport is about winning, but occasionally in defeat there is a degree of pride. This was one of them. Down three players at half-time, another out of the game with serious injury in the third and two players clearly under duress. This was a rare instance where much was gleaned in a loss. In the third term when seriously down on personnel the Eagles won the contested ball count (25-11), squared clearances (13-13) and won the inside 50 count 17-12.

2. Even taking into consideration the fact the Eagles were without an effective rotation in the last quarter as Liam Ryan showed great courage in returning to battle, they won the contested possession count by 11 and the uncontested count by nine. That said, the Dockers were able to dominate the last 15 minutes of the match, rattling on the last six goals after a Jack Darling major had the Eagles within two points in the early stages of the final stanza.

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Ryan's speed sets up a Sheed snap goal

Liam Ryan puts on the afterburners, feeding Dom Sheed for the finish

3. There’s nothing like learning on the job and some of the Eagles youngsters will benefit greatly from this experience. The club’s first selection in the 2021 draft Campbell Chesser settled into the tempo the further the game went and finished with 12 possessions and four marks, Noah Long again demonstrated his footy smarts with 18 possessions and Reuben Ginbey underlined the reasons recruiters rated him so highly in last year’s draft. Playing half-back and through the midfield he had 20 possessions, 13 of them contested, and laid eight tackles.

4. Going into this game the Eagles knew they would face a mammoth challenge in the ruck with Bailey Williams and Jake Waterman going head-to-head with Sean Darcy and Luke Jackson. Darcy, in particular, with 52 hit outs to Williams’ 14 was a dominant factor, but the young Eagle exemplified the spirit in the team as he competed throughout. The under-sized Waterman again accepted the challenge and was a solid contributor.

09:06

Simpson post-match v Fremantle 02.04.23

West Coast Eagles senior coach Adam Simpson post match press conference after clash against Fremantle.

5. The Eagles again showed that if they can get the ball inside their forward 50 fast and deep they can hit the scoreboard. Oscar Allen and Jack Darling kicked six between them, including five in the first term. When Darling took a strong contested mark in the opening minutes of the last quarter and slotted the goal there was a sense the Eagles could complete one of their great backs-to-the-wall victories. Alas, that was not to be as collectively they ran out petrol tickets.