Sydney's 62-point win 16.11 (105) to 5.15 (45) at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night leaves the Eagles with a 1-3 record, their worst start in the AFL since 1996.

West Coast coach John Worsfold could see the positives in the defeat, drawing on the fighting spirit of some of his younger players.

But it was the fight between Hall (who was reported for striking) and Staker in the first quarter which was the talking point of the one-sided game. Six of the previous seven clashes between the 2005 and 2006 grand final combatants had been decided by less than a goal.

"He (Staker) has gone down and he's not looking too good at the moment. But we'll just wait and see what happens from that," Eagles midfielder Adam Selwood said.

"I saw it on the scoreboard. I think everyone thinks the same thing, so we'll just wait and see what happens."

Eagles defender Adam Hunter said he was five metres from the incident.

"I saw it. Seeing Stakes go down behind play like that certainly stirs the blood," Hunter added.

"It was something that you don't see too often any more."

Worsfold said he really felt for Staker after the 23-year-old Eagles premiership player from Broken Hill was floored by Hall and sat dazed on the bench for the last three quarters.

"He was trying to get himself up and going but the doctors weren't really comfortable with him going back on. It was a massive risk if we had decided to put him back on in a game that we weren't going to win in that last quarter," Worsfold said.

Worsfold hopes to have Staker, David Wirrpanda (hamstring) and Andrew Embley (ill) available for this week's home game against winless Port Adelaide, with dumped midfielder Chad Fletcher a chance to return to the Eagles lineup after a solid display in the WAFL.

"Shannon Hurn, Chris Masten, Jamie McNamara, all the young players ... Ben McKinley (four goals) we've been very impressed with, Scott Selwood, Adam Selwood's job on (Adam) Goodes after he really lit the game up early in that second quarter," the 2006 premiership coach enthused. "So overall we are not far away, that's our true belief.

"I was very pleased with the way our young players took it up to the Sydney players in that second half."

Worsfold boldly predicted the Eagles were in better shape than the Swans (3-1).

"Those young players are going to be playing for a long period of time at our club and they are going to help us win premierships," he said.

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