The West Coast Eagles suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time this season, falling by 66-points to Hawthorn at Kinetic Stadium on Saturday.

While the Eagles showed spirit in the first term, Hawthorn dominated from the start of the second quarter onwards, and Eagles’ coach Daisy Pearce said the Hawks exposed some areas that the team needs to work on.

“They were impressive, credit to Hawthorn and how quickly they’ve been able to develop,” Pearce said.

“Their ability to work all across the field, their fundamentals, they were just clearly better than us on the day.

“Some positives for us, we were able to get some good time in our forward half when we had the wind in that first quarter, unfortunately we didn’t capitalise.

“But it just exposed what they were doing well, what we need to go to work on which is our fundamentals.

“We can walk away from it dejected or think that’s a really good blueprint as to how you can improve quickly, and that’s what we’re in the business for trying to do.

“We’ll be honest, it wasn’t out best performance, and we’ve got a lot of work to do, but games like that give you feedback and it’s our job not to shy away from it.”

The Eagles boast a young and developing side, with five players who faced Hawthorn playing less than nine AFLW games, and Pearce said consistency is a focus with such a youthful side.

“I think with a young side, consistency is always key,” Pearce said.

“What we’ve seen with our team is that they’ve turned up and played with real spirit and competitiveness every single week.

“Today was maybe a bit of a step back, but I just keep coming back to giving the opposition credit, our girls prepared really well but as the season goes on, that’s the challenge in a comp like this, to be able to keep fronting up, which we’ll do.”

Exciting new draftee Jess Rentsch came from the ground with an ankle complaint, but Pearce said they were airing on the side of caution after Rentsch’s heavy workload this season.

“I think she just rolled her ankle, but was able to play out the game,” Pearce said.

“It was just right at the end there that we decided, a young payer who’s had a huge workload, just to give her an opportunity to freshen up.

“The game was done, and she was a bit sore, but we think she’ll be ok.”

Looking ahead to this weekend, the Eagles take on the Fremantle Dockers in the RAC Derby, and Pearce said she’s looking forward to the rivalry.

“I’m excited, obviously disappointed today and we’ll review, but the key is being able to take away the learnings from that and apply them to Fremantle,” Pearce said.

“There’s always a bit in it I hear in the Derby, but we look forward to it, it should be a really good day down at Leederville Oval.

“Being tied to Telethon, we really look forward to supporting that charity.”