WEST Coast coach John Worsfold was at a loss to describe his side's capitulation at the hands of Richmond that has left the Eagles' top-four hopes hanging by a thread. 

The Eagles controlled the opening term to lead by six points at quarter-time before conceding 10 unanswered goals to the Tigers over the next 40 minutes of football to be blown out of the game. 

Worsfold felt that his side just was not sharp enough but was at a loss to explain why.

"Even the first quarter we weren't that impressed with. We had it on our terms but still didn't look that sharp," the Eagles coach said in the post-match press conference. 

"The issue was why didn't we look sharp tonight. I don't really know the answer to that."

The statistics of the match are baffling given the 41-point margin in favour of Richmond.

West Coast had 54 more hit outs, 12 more contested possessions, one more inside 50 and one fewer scoring shot, yet the Eagles were never in the contest after quarter-time. 

Worsfold could not explain any of it.

"No I can't. We had opportunities where we weren't clean (in) taking the footy," he said. 

"If you miss your first opportunity, often it's the trailing player who gets the opportunity to get it and I think they took advantage of that. 

"Their intensity around the stoppages was good to not let us get through players."

Worsfold could not find any indicators in the lead-up that his side would be off their game.

"I still haven't worked that one out," he said.  

"There's games when it comes and you look for signs and you try to think back. 

"There was nothing to suggest that we weren't going to be as sharp as we would've liked."

The Eagles were again exposed by pace through the midfield as the likes of Brett Deledio, Dustin Martin, Matt White and Nick Vlastuin cut a swathe through their defence during the second term, just as Carlton and Hawthorn had done in previous losses this year. 

"They used the ball really well and kicked well," Worsfold said. 

"Obviously we weren't sharp enough to shut down their open players and that's what was pretty disappointing for us."

The Eagles now slip to 5-5 after winning four straight against the Bulldogs, Lions, North Melbourne, and GWS.

 

They have a short week before taking on St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Sunday but Worsfold was not concerned by the six-day break.

"We've had a lot of six-day turnarounds this year and we've generally done pretty well off them," he said. 

"We've got our procedures in place for our training loads. So all that will be fine."