The West Coast Eagles have recorded their first win of the 2023 season with an exciting six-point victory over Port Adelaide at Mineral Resources Park on Friday night.
The Eagles took valuable learnings out of last week’s game against Sydney, and coach Michael Prior was pleased with how the team implemented those learnings in the 6.3 (39) to 4.9 (33) triumph over the Power.
“The things that we identified from our game against Sydney, we were able to implement tonight which was really pleasing,” Prior said.
“We did it on the back of no training this week, we had two 10-minute sessions, a short week, so that might be the key, I said that to the girls, and they were pretty happy with that.
“It was pleasing that we implemented some stuff, we got good looks going forward and hit the scoreboard more than what we have.”
Standout performances from captain Emma Swanson and multiple Eagles defenders had a huge impact around the ground in crucial times throughout the game.
“I thought we had some outstanding individual efforts right through the team,” Prior said.
“’Swanny’ led from the front in her 50th game, so to get a win in a milestone game for her is really pleasing.
“Charlie Thomas and Belinda Smith down back were really performing, and ‘Soph Mac’ (Sophie McDonald), I thought our backline really stood up today and we got some good looks in the midfield as well.”
After struggling through the midfield earlier in the season, Prior said the group is growing in that area, which in turn, helped to keep some key Port players out of the contest.
“We’re going to come up against very good players every week we play so our group is growing there, our pressure around the footy has been pretty good for a couple of weeks now,” Prior said.
“We have to be able to maintain that but also nullify the quality players from the opposition.”
In what was an intense and thrilling final term, Prior was impressed with the squad’s awareness and composure in the pivotal moments.
“The game awareness, to be able to slow it down a little bit, the number of players instructing our girls to kick it down the line and not look in the corridor,” Prior said.
“Just little things like that just shows that we’re growing, and the girls are taking it on board and wanting to learn and to see them implement it in the game was really pleasing.”
