West Coast Eagles stand-in skipper Liam Duggan says players are down on confidence after Gold Coast belting

Stand-in West Coast captain Liam Duggan has pointed to a lack of confidence in some players as a factor in their midfield belting at the hands of Gold Coast.

The Eagles conceded eight consecutive goals in the second quarter to trail by 50 points at half-time ahead of their 70-point loss to the Suns at Optus Stadium on Friday night.

It was on the back of Gold Coast’s domination at the clearances, recording 14 to just five as well as 24 more inside-50s in the first half.

Gold Coast kicked five goals to just one in the final term to solidify the biggest win in the club’s history away from home, but by then Duggan said “the boys are out on their feet trying to catch up”.

“It’s tough, there’s probably a few boys down on confidence as well,” Duggan said when asked about their midfield belting.

“We’re a really young side at the moment and it’s also been a tough start to the year again.

“We’ve got to get back to basics, really honour the contests like our life depends on it and just get the footy moving our ways.

“It’s hard to pinpoint and reflect this early on, but we’ve just got to get better.”

It was yet another period of play where the Eagles could not stop a team from getting a run on which led to a seventh consecutive loss.

Duggan conceded the Eagles didn’t have any answers as to why they were unable to stop teams from getting significant periods of dominance.

“We can’t let teams get too far ahead that early in the game and then we do a lot of work just to stay in touch after that,” Duggan said.

“When we lose the quarters the contest drops away, inside 50s drop away and if you get beaten around the ball at the moment you’re much pretty much destined to lose games of footy.

“We’ve got to win the ball around the source and get it moving forward to our boys and get a bit more stoppage dominance.”

It was a disappointing end to what was a special night for Duggan personally, with the premiership defender captaining the club for the first time in the absence of Luke Shuey.

“Obviously it’s just a stand-in role at the moment while Boots is out but it’s a great honour to lead and I enjoyed the role,” Duggan said.

“I don’t think it changed too much about how I went but it’s great for some of us young blokes to rotate through it and get a bit of experience in the role.”