West Coast captain Liam Duggan says returning mid-forward Jack Graham addressed the playing group immediately after he was slapped with a four-week suspension for a homophobic slur.

Duggan, who plays his 200th game on Sunday against Adelaide at Optus Stadium, says Graham would be a welcome addition to an inexperienced midfield.

“’Fridge’ (Graham) did what he had to do,” Duggan said. “Obviously, he owned the mistake and moved on. And I think straight back into the midfield would be the play.

“To inject him back in there will be huge for our young midfielders. I’m assuming that’s where it will be, but can’t tell you for certain.”

Graham, recruited from Richmond at the end of last season, copped the ban after self-reporting the slur against a Greater Western Sydney player in round 17.

The Eagles are coming off an 83-point road drubbing by Melbourne with their coach Andrew McQualter saying they were “not tough enough”.

Duggan, who has led the side solo in the absence of injured co-captain Oscar Allen, described the assessment as “fair”.

“He’s been really honest and transparent,” he said.

“You have to be honest with yourself and the team as we look to improve and continue on this journey that we’re on.

“We have put a lot of great foundations in place across this year. We’ve probably let those slip a little bit the last handful of games, but we’ve got three more to go to keep finding out what that is for us.”

Duggan said he was “chuffed” to get to the 200-game milestone – and to celebrate it on the day retiring premiership greats and good mates Jeremy McGovern and Dom Sheed will be paraded at half-time.

“Two hundred games with this great club, big milestone for me and my family and happy that I get to share a pretty special moment with Gov and Dom as well,” he said, adding teammate Ryan Maric would also bring up his 50th game.

“At the start of my career, I said to a few recruiters as I was going through that process, I’d love to be a 200-game player for a football club and play in a premiership.

“To achieve both of those at this stage of my career is nice to look back on and reflect and celebrate.

“Loyalty is one of my core values. Just really proud and thankful and grateful that I’ve been able to pull on this jumper 200 times.

“Those boys (McGovern) and Dom … great mates of mine for a long time and their career has probably been cut a little bit shorter than they would have liked.

“I don’t think either of us would like to sort of be on an island in these games, it’s just not our style and our personality. So sharing the moment would be nice for the three of us.”

Duggan said this week’s game, which brings together 1 v 18, was “the ultimate challenge”.

“Whether it’s this week, the week after round one next year, we all want some wins,” he said.

“It’s going to be a tough challenge. Watching Adelaide play on the weekend, they’re up and going at the moment across all areas of their game.

“There’s also that healthy sense of optimism. And you know, we can shake up a few things too, if we bring our best.”

Duggan said the youngest list in the competition was on a steep learning curve, losing Allen, McGovern, Sheed, Elliot Yeo and now Harley Reid for the remainder of the season.

“We’ve asked a lot of our young fellas to come on and play roles that potentially I didn’t have to play when I started out in a really successful team and time so it is hard work,” he said.

“We put it on everyone, I’ve asked all the experienced players to try and lead in their own way. I don’t expect them to step up and be, you know, right by my side in terms of leading and what that looks like. There is a little bit more to it, but just ask for a little bit more from everyone.

“And we’ve also told the young fellows that we can’t wait. You need to find a way to step up. And we keep asking about and I think they are putting in the effort to do that. It may take some time to execute on game day now, but there’s certainly more ownership holistically, across the group.”