The West Coast Eagles are invested in a rapid bounce back from Saturday’s chastening loss to Geelong at GMHBA Stadium.

The 97-point defeat was the biggest in Adam Simpson’s seven-year coaching career at the Eagles, and Brad Sheppard’s 202-game playing career; with Simpson labelling the performance as ‘weak’, and ‘embarrassing’.

“It’s never ideal, the coach saying that, but he’s spot on,” Sheppard told TABradio.

“What we dished up on the weekend was exactly that, we’re a proud footy club with high standards for each individual, we didn’t live up to that.

“It was very disappointing.”

The injury list certainty didn’t help, with captain Luke Shuey, star forward Josh Kennedy, pacey midfielder Elliot Yeo, and defensive stalwart Shannon Hurn all on the sidelines for the Geelong match.

Star small forward Liam Ryan, and young gun Jack Petruccelle also sat the game out, with shin and hamstring injuries respectively.

The ‘domino effect’ also made matters worse for the squad when All Australian defender Jeremy McGovern was knocked down in the first quarter of the match.

“With ‘Gov’ going down, we got that medical sub (Brayden Ainsworth) on, so it wasn’t really personnel, since Geelong got that momentum up in the second quarter, we couldn’t halt it,” Sheppard said.

“We’ve got to stand up in those moments, it starts with the senior guys on the field.

“With Josh, he knows his body better than anyone, and it was the right decision to not play.

“Any side with Josh Kennedy in it is a better side, so hopefully he gets up this week.”

The side is meeting today for the first time since their defeat, with key focusses set to include match intensity and pathways through the midfield.

Strength around the contest will also be on the agenda, with Sheppard explaining the boys were ‘touched up’ in this area on the weekend.

“The hardest thing is, we’ve come home from Geelong and straight into lockdown, so it’s been pretty hard to look at a bit of vision to see exactly what went on,” he said.

“I thought the way we started was very positive, to be a goal up at quarter-time, we were right in the contest, and it was that was until probably half way through that second quarter."

“They lifted their intensity, we couldn’t get our hands on the footy, and they ended up piling on 10 goals.

“When it’s happening, we’ve got to rest momentum by winning the ball back, we’ve got to get our hands dirty and try and find ways to be tougher.

“Each individual, we’ve got to review exactly what went wrong, and we’ve got to learn and we’ve got to improve pretty quickly.”

The RAC Derby date now looms, with five days to tackle what went wrong against Geelong.

“It’s another big game this week, the Derby, we can’t sweep this under the carpet, we’ve got to really dig in to see what happened,” Sheppard said.

“It’s not a system, it’s just players, and we’ve got to get tougher.

“We’re a pretty resilient group, a proud group, but it’s not losing games of footy, it’s the way you lose.

“We hold ourselves accountable, we don’t pass the blame onto anyone.”

And although the Eagles have won the past 10 derbies against Fremantle, they must still dig deep to break through Fremantle’s near-perfect season.

“There’s no real secret to the past, as much as you want to reflect on the past you have to live in the present,” Sheppard said.

“Current reality is, we’re coming off a big loss on the weekend, they’re going really well.

“It’s fair to say, it’s a big, big challenge, we’ve just got to bring our intensity.”

And there is one positive to take away from the weekend’s experience, the Eagles have been able to bounce back after losses against the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda, with sizeable wins at against Port Adelaide and Collingwood at home.

“It’s a big game for the state, probably two contrasting sides in terms of the weekend they’re coming off, but no doubt we’re going to be ready for them,” Sheppard said.

“Fremantle now got new players in, new coach, new system, like I say, it’s never easy.

“But both sides probably feel like they match up pretty well against each other.

“You’ve just got to get mentally ready for the game, and what’s coming, and hopefully put your best foot forward.

“If we play to the ability and capability that we know we can, then it’s going to be a great game of footy.

“And fingers crossed we can keep that streak going.”