Despite falling to Sydney by just 13 points last weekend, West Coast Eagles coach Michael Prior said the team will look to replicate the positives from that game when they face Port Adelaide on Friday night at Mineral Resources Park.

“We thought our pressure and intensity around the footy was really strong for four quarters,” Prior said.

“We highlighted that to the girls during the week, and we had a quite a few looks going forward, but in saying that, we could have had a lot more as well, so that was part of our review on Monday.

“The missed opportunities going forward, and obviously kicking nine points is not ideal, but the positive was that we gave ourselves opportunity and we went inside forward 50 31 times.”

Prior said the team is focusing on the connection in the forward half, which will hopefully provide more chances for the Eagles to convert in front of goal.   

“Our connection in our front half is a massive thing for us,” Prior said.

“We haven’t done much training at all this week, and even tonight when we go out for a captain’s run it will be about connection inside our forward 50 and our front half.

“If we can get that little piece right, we’re going to get a lot more looks and we’re going to score more and the ball is going to spend more time in our forward 50, because that’s the piece of the puzzle that’s missing for us at the moment.”

Experienced midfielder Aisling McCarthy said that while there were improvements from the midfield group in last week’s game, missed opportunities in front of goal was the downfall.

“Us as a midfield group had to respond from our performances over the previous couple of weeks,” McCarthy said.

“We got a good bit of the ball inside, but it was probably that last bit of connection with the forward group, we had a few opportunities in front of goal, I know I missed a few as well.

“At this level you just can’t leave those opportunities behind, and that was kind of the story of the game.

“If we finish off our work this week it will put us in a good position to hopefully get the first win of the season.”

Prior said he was pleased with how certain players performed their specific roles against Sydney, and he will look to roll out a similar plan against Port.

“Port are young and up-and-coming team, they’ve got some youth and experience and very good older players playing in their team,” Prior said.

“We’ve identified a few that we need to take care of through the middle of the ground to give ourselves a chance.

“We threw a few jobs towards our girls last week in the Sydney game and we thought all the girls who had jobs to do came out and performed really well for us.

“So that focus was there and we noticed a shift in mindset because we did that so we’ll look to do that again tomorrow night and see if we get the same results.”