A DEJECTED West Coast coach Adam Simpson said his side got what it deserved in its horror loss to Sydney on Saturday.

The Eagles suffered the biggest defeat in club history at the SCG, going down to the Swans by 171 points and conceding the AFL's first score of 200 or more points since 2011.

SWANS v EAGLES Full match coverage and stats

It continued what has been a miserable season for West Coast, which is 1-13 in 2023, has lost 12 straight games and has a percentage of 47.3.

"We're pretty embarrassed about today," Simpson said post-game. 

"We tried lots of things but none of them worked, so from start to finish we were on the back foot, and we couldn't gain any type of ascendancy at all and in the end we got what we deserved." 

Simpson, bereft of options moving forward due to the club's significant injury list, admitted that many of his players aren't yet at AFL level and were selected purely by necessity. 

"We can't make too many changes at the moment, we've got two guys playing in the WAFL, so outside of keep taking steps forward and keep trying to lead as well as we can, that's the only way you can go," Simpson said. 

"Disappointing day today, it was really disappointing, (against) a very good side in Sydney, we exposed some kids who just aren't quite ready for AFL and some of our senior players were below their best, so when you get that combination, plus a couple more injuries, you get a game like today.

"A lot of those guys with a full list, senior and younger players, wouldn't be playing. We haven't got much of a choice."

The Eagles were forced to sub out Jack Williams in the second quarter due to a rolled ankle, while key defender Tom Barrass underwent two head injury assessments during the game, meaning he was off the field for nearly a half of football. 

"We did (the HIA) again just to make sure, and he passed both times. Unfortunately we lost him probably for the first half pretty much, and young Jack Williams has rolled an ankle, to what extent I don't know, and it looks like (Samo) Petrevski-Seton's played with a quaddie for most of the day which put us under the pump a little bit," Simpson said. 

"We've just got to accept it and make the most of it and try to be more competitive, because it was unacceptable tonight. It was embarrassing.

"Flat tonight. Yeah, it's a tough one today. But it's not about me, it's about the players, it's about performance." 

Going forward, Simpson said that "the cavalry's not quite coming", with Shannon Hurn and Jamie Cripps the only possible senior inclusions next week. 

Opposing coach John Longmire was respectful of his former premiership teammate's situation. 

"They've had a tough time for a while, and it's hard when you haven't got your best players available," Longmire said.

Despite the records his Swans set throughout the evening, Longmire was more pleased by the team-wide performance he witnessed. 

"It's not so much about the percentage, it's the outcome, but the way we went about it was terrific to watch. Just a really good team performance, everyone contributing when they had to and everyone sharing the load," he said.

Twelve different Swans hit the scoreboard, nine of which kicked multiple goals and five in the red and white gathered 25 or more disposals. 

"That's the thing that stood out to us, that ability to make your teammate look better," Longmire said.

At three-quarter time Sydney had posted its highest score to that point of a game, and Longmire was pleased his players were able to remain focused on the task at hand. 

"In those times as a coach you step back and let the players go, so I didn't have much of an involvement, they were in the moment, and they knew what they had to do," Longmire said.

Longmire confirmed the decision to sub Callum Mills at three-quarter time was purely precautionary on his co-captain's return.  

"We didn't play Joel (Amartey) the last 15 minutes of the game just to make sure he was OK as well," he said.

"We've had a few that have had compromised runs at it, so we wanted to make sure they were all OK." 

Tom McCartin also performed well in the VFL earlier on Saturday, getting through the game with no concerns so will likely be in the mix in the coming weeks.