Sidelined West Coast veteran Elliot Yeo says the Eagles need to “get urgent” in addressing their woes following a young star’s heartbreaking admission.

After a 71-point loss to Carlton at the weekend, young defender Brady Hough broke down in tears when speaking to The West Australian, as he tried to describe the pain of repeated beltings.

Yeo, who is still several weeks away from returning from injury, admitted it will keep getting harder to motivate players as the thrashings mount.

“It sucks, it sucks, no one goes out their deliberately playing bad, and there’s no doubt we’re hurting,” he said on 96FM.

“We do talk about (coming through the fire), but it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“How do you keep them motivated? That’s the hardest part when you’re losing.

“At the end of the day, we have the best job in the world, we still come in loving what we do and the football club, and we want to make fans proud and happy.”

For Yeo, the solution lies at the source after the Eagles recorded the lowest number of contested possessions since records began in Saturday’s Gather Round defeat.

“We don’t want to be defending and trying to start our ball movement from the back half,” he said.

“You just have no opportunity to implement what you want to do when you don’t have the ball.”

With Yeo stalled in his recovery from knee and ankle injuries, the 31-year-old remains desperate to get back on the field.

“It’s about how quickly can I get back to help the younger kids because it’s frustrating to watch,” he said.

“We know we’re better than that; it’s just not clicking at the moment, but we need to get urgent with that, losing by considerable amounts and it being an open slather for critics.

“It’s hard because you feel like you’re disconnected from the main group, and you are because you’re on different programs.”

Andrew McQualter took a gamble in dropping veterans Tim Kelly and Tom Cole ahead of their Carlton clash and while Yeo said he hopes to see them back soon, they can’t be relying on ageing stars.

“We do need to get some experience into younger players and that’s my thought process around what’s happening,” he said.

“You don’t want to rely on one or two players. We need to get there collectively.”