West Coast Eagles eye off first western derby victory over Fremantle in Daisy Pearce’s second season as coach

West Coast are off to a flying start in Daisy Pearce’s second season as coach. And ahead of what looms as the biggest western derby clash in AFLW history, the Eagles are eyeing off the biggest scalp of her coaching career. Fremantle have won all seven previous meetings between the WA clubs, dating back to the inaugural derby in 2020. While the Dockers remain slight favourites over their cross-town rivals, it’s West Coast who enter Sunday’s clash at Fremantle Community Bank as the in-form side. The Eagles have won three of their first four games, with a maiden finals appearance firmly in the club’s sights in 2025. Meanwhile, the Dockers have lost their past three games, with the pressure already mounting in a 12-game season. AFLW great and Seven expert Kate McCarthy declared it was “easily the biggest” western derby to date. “They’re always competitive, regardless of where the teams are on the ladder or their form coming into it, which we see across the men’s space as well,’ she told The West Australian. “But the build up to this one’s massive, and it should be a massive game.” McCarthy said Pearce had set the Eagles up for success over the off-season by continuing to instil belief in the young group, while putting an emphasis on fitness and skills to help them execute under pressure. “I think their last two games have shown not only have they got what it takes with their personnel and their positions and who plays where and the jobs that they all need to do, but it’s clear that Daisy, and their coaching staff as well, deliver a message to them, and they have full trust they can go out and now execute it,” McCarthy told The West Australian. “And I think last year, they knew what they were trying to do and knew what they wanted to do, but being able to execute it and execute it under pressure was something that maybe weren’t able to do. “I know in the off season, that was something that Daisy really spoke about coming into the season, they wanted to really execute their skills under pressure, execute their game plan under pressure. “And I think the past two games, the comebacks from three quarter time onwards have just really shown that.” McCarthy conceded she thought West Coast would need another year under Pearce before the club was a genuine finals contender but that the young group had exceeded her expectations. “I thought they’d they’d probably need another season just to to figure all of it out, really, and to get some experience into their youngsters,” she said. “But it’s some of their first year players that are contributing so much, like Lucia Painter, Kayla Dalgleish, even Courtney Rowley last week was phenomenal.”