The West Coast Eagles were overrun by a strong Port Adelaide outfit on Saturday, but local young gun Ella Roberts produced another exceptional performance for the blue and gold.

Roberts’ aerial work was outstanding, managing a game-high, career-high and round-high 11 marks, along with 27 touches and a goal, and coach Daisy Pearce said Roberts will continue to be a problem for the opposition.

“She was incredible, the opposition are going to keep putting time into her, and the great thing about Ella is that she’s a competitor, she takes all that in her stride and sort of sees it as a compliment,” Pearce said.

“Her ability to impact as a forward and mid makes life difficult (for the opposition) in terms of finding a match up for her.

“Her first quarter was unbelievable, she’s a pleasure to watch, for all of us, not just the fans that came out.

“It’s a constant in our coaching box whether she’s best served forward or mid at any given time, so sometimes the way of the game will mean that we want her around the ball, and other times, we try and get her forward to be dangerous there.”

Pearce said the 19-year-old Peel Thunder product spent a lot of time in the off-season focusing on her marking skills, which is evidently paying dividends.

“She’s put a lot of work into it actually, it was probably one of her main things that she was working on at the start of the year,” Pearce said.

“Her and the coaches have done a heap of work on her being able to complete a lot of marks, and she’s so courageous, backs back with the flight.

“I think the beauty of today is her teammates are now identifying when she’s coming and how they can help protect her space.

“I think the first goal she kicked was Lauren Wakfer really being able to protect her space for her, so that awareness of her teammates, knowing how to help set up your teammate to play to their strengths, it’s awesome to watch.”

After getting off to a three-goal advantage against Port on Saturday, but falling away in the second quarter, Pearce said the Eagles were put under a lot of pressure around the ground and unable to match the visitors’ intensity.

“We knew Port Adelaide were going to come out, they’re one of the better contested sides in the comp, and their pressure is right up there,” Pearce said.

“We knew that they would keep coming, even though we had a good start, what was disappointing was that they just started outworking us for a good 10-to-15-minute period.

“They were getting first hands on the ball, taking the ball forward, putting our backs under a lot of pressure.

“They lifted their intensity, and we just missed the jump and didn’t go with them in that second quarter.”