West Coast coach Andrew McQualter concedes his team may have been too young in the midfield against Carlton, with the Eagles searching for the right balance of youth and hardened bodies during a winless start to the season. 

The Eagles' engine room has taken a hit, with Tim Kelly out of form, Elliot Yeo injured, Harley Reid building fitness at half-back and Liam Duggan also moved behind the ball. 

It meant the Eagles turned to young trio Clay Hall, Tom Gross and Jack Hutchinson, who have played a combined 17 games, as their most prominent midfielders against the Blues, losing clearances 40-18 and recording a record-low 77 contested possessions. 

McQualter said the team was focused on improving its fundamentals in training and would back its young midfielders, but giving them the required support to perform at AFL level was at the front of his mind. 

"We want to help our players improve, but we've got to set them up to succeed as well. So potentially we went too young in the one area last week," he said on Wednesday. 

"I'm not really sure, but we think that everybody from last weekend will have learned some lessons and they'll be better for it. But we need to get better quickly.

"We'll just continue to back all of our players and whoever we pick each week.

"We understood that [the midfield] was a challenging area of our game last week. We were clearly young in that area and it's an ongoing battle that we're going to have." 

Kelly was dropped last week and had 20 disposals and five tackles in the WAFL, with a return this week not guaranteed as the Eagles support the 2023 club champion to "get him playing back up to his level".   

McQualter said the 2019 All-Australian, who ranked top two at the Eagles for clearances and contested ball before his axing, had handled his omission the right way.  

"He was really disappointed as I hoped he would be and expected he would be, but he really took it on the chin, trained well in the WAFL program last weekend and went about it the right way with the way that he attacked that game on the weekend. 

"He's been around for a long time. His journey in football has been a difficult one. He started when he was a bit older, so he's a mature guy and a good leader for our footy club. 

"We've worked really closely with Tim and been really clear on what parts of his game we need him to improve in … he's really important to us and we need to get him playing back up to his level."

While Kelly's return is not guaranteed, the Eagles are confident vice-captain Jeremy McGovern will be available to take on Essendon on Friday night after recovering from a groin injury and training on Wednesday. 

Tough draftee Lucca Grego, who was the Eagles' standout player in the WAFL last weekend, is "in the mix" after moving into the midfield in recent weeks. 

"He played a little bit there as a junior, but he did spend most of the pre-season as a half-back so he's learning a new role," McQualter said.  

"Some great signs last week that he's playing a WAFL standard or maybe even above WAFL standard, which is what we want our players to be able to do."

Fellow draftee Bo Allan will be available to play this week after missing with illness, with McQualter confirming the pick No.16 had not been dealing with a longer-term issue. 

The coach said contested ball and fundamentals would be a focus on the track for the team as they search for their first win of the season against the Bombers. 

"See the tackle bags out here? There's a bit of training we'll do today and there's no easy fix to that," he said.  

"You have to get your fundamentals really strong, and we weren't in that space last week. 

"We've reviewed it really strongly and we're going to continue to train it and support our players so that we get our fundamentals right.

"It (a record low contested possessions) is never a stat you want to be involved with, but we've got to get better and we understand that."