North Warrnambool Eagles duo injured in thumping win over Camperdown

The Eagles played with just 19 men from the the 20-minute mark of the first quarter in their 18.9 (117) to 5.11 (41) victory after Xavier Mills suffered a concussion and Will Scriven was taken to hospital with a broken collarbone.

Coach Adam Dowie confirmed Scriven would be operated on tonight and Mills was certain to miss at least one week due to his injury.

But there was still plenty of upside for the first-year Eagles mentor as he watched his side dominate Camperdown on its home deck.

"It was probably our best four-quarter performance," he said. "We've been playing bits and pieces but today I just thought our work around the ball, as we have been doing a lot of work and reviewing on it, was good.

"As a result that's where a lot of our chains of possession started and we used the ball very well and we won the 50-50 balls and played the way we want to play."

In another positive for the Eagles, former Melbourne utility and Port Melbourne-listed player Dion Johnstone played for his home club for the first time this season, while ex-VFL player Sam McLachlan also returned.

Dowie said depth was a big luxury this season at Bushfield as his side now has fierce competition for spots in the Eagles' best 21.

"Our other two sides have not lost a game this season so we have some depth," he said.

"But it's a bit of a balancing act because those guys who are playing at 12 o'clock there has to be some hope and that they aren't banging their heads against the brick wall.

"Through form or injury those guys will get an opportunity so every cloud does have a silver lining.

"We have got guys like Zach Urquhart, who has been terrific the last couple of weeks, Tim O'Brien has put in a big pre-season and Ben Mugavin, while Jackson Couch and Sam Slattery both went back this week and played well."

Dowie was also impressed by the form Adam Wines, who booted six goals, and Sam James was starting to build.

Camperdown co-coach Jack Williams said his team's chance to bounce back from a disappointing outing would start at training on Tuesday night.

"I said to the boys 'everything starts at training' and are blokes getting there at 6 o'clock and going straight from getting here to training and not being in that mindset that we train how we play," he said.

"So I just said if we can get to training earlier and get a group of blokes together and work on our skill execution, as it just killed us again today."

Williams said his side's effort was still there but there was plenty of work to be done for the Magpies to find their best form.

The first-year co-coach said his side would need to adjust how it approached its defensive structures after its full-ground zone fell apart against the Eagles.

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