Experienced West Coast Eagles midfielder Elliot Yeo has shed some light on the main messages to come out of the team’s round one 50-point loss to Port Adelaide.

“We had a lot of conversations, but I think the one that probably pops out is just the fact that we were able to let them transition the ball way to easily,” Yeo said.

“That comes down to our team defence, which was pretty bad I thought on the weekend, and it was pretty clear for us coming off the ground that was one of the things that let us down.

“And that was probably why it was hard to get the ball forward, we were pretty much defending a lot of the day and you don’t want to be doing that, because when you get the ball it’s tough to try and get it moving and going forward.

“Our ball movement was probably a bit of a cost in that aspect because of it, but that’s probably one of the main cruxes, that one was something that really stood out through the day, and that really hurt us.”

After a competitive first term from the Eagles, Port were able to turn the pressure up a notch and pushed the margin out to 31 points by the main break, which Yeo said was a result of poor ball movement from the visitors.

“We didn’t get to execute on a few things that we wanted to, that probably shows with the scoreboard as well,” Yeo said.

“In the last quarter it (the margin) probably ran out a little bit because we tried a few different things and wanted to try and get the ball forward as much as we could.

“We were struggling pretty much most of the day with our ball movement, and from that perspective, sometimes when you give up a few opportunities and take some risks, you’re going to get scored against as well.

“We kicked some goals, but we probably cost ourselves some goals as well, there’s definitely plenty of learning coming out of it, but it was a pretty tough day.”

After a challenging few seasons with injuries, Yeo managed to get through round one unscathed and is in good nick heading into this weekend’s clash with GWS.  

“Feeling pretty good at the moment, good soreness, you’ll take that any day,” Yeo said.

“I started to cramp a little bit towards the end of the third, but managed to run out the rest of the game which was pretty good.

“So, body is feeling great at the moment and hopefully it continues to stay that way.”

West Coast’s no. 1 draft pick Harley Reid made his much-anticipated AFL debut on the weekend, finishing with an impressive 16 disposals and five clearances, showing his talent and competitive nature at the elite level.

“I thought Harley did really well, just with the amount of pressure, and he continues to get that amount of pressure,” Yeo said.

“For a young kid of 18 and cops a lot, he seems to handle it very, very well.

 “To be able to perform and execute like he did on the weekend, I thought for his first game it was a phenomenal effort.”

This Sunday, West Coast will be looking to replicate their 2023 round two win over GWS at Optus Stadium.

“You can take a little bit from it but then you’ve also got to look at what they’re doing really well at the moment and what’s changed,” Yeo said.

“How we can go about it and nullify what they’re good at, whilst also trying to do and implement what we’re trying to work on and how we’re going to progress, there’s a variety of a few different things we will look at.”