Fremantle coach Ross Lyon has defended his captain Nat Fyfe, insisting he is a ball player in the wake of a clash with Elliot Yeo which is likely to attract Match Review Panel scrutiny.

Fyfe threw his arm back to shrug off Yeo but collected him with an elbow high, sending Yeo to the ground for some time.

The Eagle was assisted by trainers but played out the match.

“I didn’t really see it,” Lyon said.

“All I know is that Nathan’s a ball player, he cops a lot of attention and sometimes players stay down to milk free kicks. I don’t know.

“It’s not for me to comment, I didn’t see it, it doesn’t interest me, it will interest me if it’s an issue.

“At this point I think it’s a non-issue.”

Lyon also defended Fyfe’s Carlton Draught Derby performance after the skipper had just six kicks and 10 handballs.

“I think you need to understand he’s human,” Lyon said.

“But when the ball is just going into their forward 50 and it’s not coming out it makes it hard for midfielders to get a bit of ball.

“They went in and they scored, they went in and they scored, so at one stage it was eight entries (for) 7.1, so there’s not too much rebound ball coming out. It’s quite difficult.

“I thought his hit around the ball was fantastic and he wasn’t perfect, but I thought he was OK.

“I think he’s leading well, he’s embracing the group, he’s really pleasing in an overall sense.

“But we all lick our wounds. There’s a cliché, but we go away and we recover ourselves and we get going again.”

Lyon conceded the Fremantle Dockers shoddy start had ruined their chances.

Fremantle won the inside 50 count 12-11 in the first quarter but found itself six goals behind.

The Eagles’ ruthless efficiency up forward saw Josh Kennedy, Jack Darling and Josh Hill each have two goals at the first break.

Defender Jeremy McGovern had grabbed five marks, including three intercepts as West Coast dominated at both ends.

“The first quarter the game was won and lost,” Lyon said.

“That’s often the case, after that I thought our endeavour didn’t wane, if anything it stepped up throughout the game so that was pleasing.

“Our first three entries they marked the ball, so McGovern had a picnic marking the ball and I think Yeo might have taken a few.

“For the game they marked nine of our entries and eight of them occurred in the first half, I think five in the first quarter, so that was an issue for us.

“If you don’t use the ball well going forward and you don’t position well that’s going to be an issue and it allows them to counterpunch on you pretty quick … at one stage we had had 11 entries and one point or a goal, and they’d had five for four goals, so they were really efficient and effective defensively.”