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West Coast coach Adam Simpson says the Eagles “can’t go down into the pit” after their 66-point loss to reigning premiers Collingwood was compounded by potential serious injuries to Jeremy McGovern and Jack Petruccelle.

The Eagles were ambushed by an injury-hit Magpies outfit in the first half, conceding seven goals from centre clearances before half-time to trail by 55 points.

Simpson’s size managed to stem the onslaught in the second half as injuries mounted for both sides, losing 15.13 (103) to 5.7 (37).

Petruccelle was subbed out at the first break with a “tiny syndesmosis” injury, while McGovern was taken to hospital with suspected internal injuries after a heavy fall just before the main break.

Simpson said he was unsure of the extent of the injuries and was hopeful injured stars Jake Waterman (concussion) and Elliot Yeo (groin) would be available to tackle Melbourne next Sunday at Optus Stadium.

But he warned the reigning wooden spooners could not “fall back into feeling sorry for ourselves”.

“We just can’t go down into the pit too much,” Simpson said.

“We know unfortunately where we’re at in the build we’re on we’re going to have some really good days and there’s going to be some days or halves where we’re going to be disappointing.

“We just can’t fall back into the feeling sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to put the next foot forward, recover as well as we can, next player comes up and we hit Melbourne with everything we’ve got.”

Simpson has previously stated they don’t want to rely on too few but conceded they missed Yeo at the stoppages today.

“Yeo would have been good for us. They’re premiership midfield, premiership backline were out there,” he said.

“We don’t want to rely on Yeo but we need him. He’s probably our best player. He helps others around. I think it was a bit of method as much as talent (around the stoppages).”

The Eagles conceded only four goals to two after half-time, an effort Simpson said would have been unlikely this time last year.

“I reckon this time last year if that had of happened at half-time, I don’t reckon we would’ve fought like we did in the second half,” Simpson said.

“We got overwhelmed early by Collingwood’s pressure which they’re back. The centre bounces we conceded seven goals to half-time … the game’s sort of over at half-time. Those two things in particular were the two main things we didn’t manage at all.

“We played differently to how we’ve been playing lately, which is not ideal, but they managed to get better and we won the last quarter.

“We’re disappointed and we don’t think we took a step back in the sense that everything we’ve done in the last five weeks is worth nothing, it’s just we played a really good side and got touched up in the first half.”

The Eagles conceded a whopping 59 inside 50s, with their backline holding up well under the constant pressure, which Simpson wants to reduce in the next couple of weeks as one of their “major goals”.