West Coast coach Adam Simpson has labelled the Eagles' performance in a 108-point loss to Carlton "unacceptable" and "not good enough" following a bitterly disappointing night at Optus Stadium. 

After recent performances that had represented progress for the injury-hit club, which was missing at least 10 players from its best 22, Simpson said Saturday night was a step backwards. 

"That was disappointing … it's not what we've been training and playing and trying to put out. Carlton were ruthless and they put the foot on the throat and made us pay," Simpson said. 

"I think we got tipped over today. We have shown some resilience earlier in the season but we didn't tonight. We got touched up. But we've just got to stay resilient and accept the criticism.

"We're clearly undermanned at the moment, but we've found a way to stay competitive, albeit we haven't been winning.

"There's a fine line with that. There's reality about it, and then there's what we're chasing, what we expect, and what we didn't deliver tonight.

"We were outhunted, they moved the ball better, it looked like they ran over the ground a bit better than us, and their talent got the rewards."

The Eagles lost young defender Rhett Bazzo to concussion protocols late in the game, while Samo Petrevski-Seton suffered a corked leg that the club hopes will not sideline him. 

With 17 players unavailable, Simpson was optimistic premiership midfielder Dom Sheed would return from a throat injury for next Saturday's clash against Richmond at the MCG. 

He said the Eagles needed to own their personnel issues and "get to work" after falling back into old habits on Saturday night. 

"I don't think we'd ever say we gave up, but we got outworked today," he said. 

"We were really disappointing tonight, and we want to get better. That just means we need to get back to work."