West Coast Eagles look to continue finals charge with crucial road battle against Collingwood

West Coast are out to bank a critical win when they take on lowly Collingwood on Sunday in the hope it will kick-start them for a critical last month of their race for a maiden finals appearance.

Through seven rounds, the Eagles sit narrowly inside the top eight with four wins and three losses and getting the win over a bottom four Magpies outfit would go a long way to securing a finals place.

Coach Daisy Pearce said her side is “looking forward to the challenge” that comes when they face the Pies at Mineral Resources Park.

“We’re looking forward to the challenge. I think they’ve played some good footy recently,” she said.

“They’ll probably be disappointed in their result from the weekend….. be wary of the bounce-back team coming off a loss like that.”

The Eagles are coming off a record-breaking victory, notching the clubs largest ever winning margin when they defeated the Giants by 42 points last Sunday.

Their opponents Collingwood, are looking to return to the winner’s list after a disastrous 57-point defeat at the hands of the Western Bulldogs last week.

Pearce highlighted the Magpies team defence as a real challenge.

“We have got a lot of respect for how much they’ve improved, they seem to have done a lot of work on their team defence, and they really challenge you with ball in hand.

“It’s another great challenge for us, and our number one focus is to just keep improving ourselves.”

After Sunday’s game, a challenging month beckons for the club, with the sides final four games all against fellow finals hopefuls.

Following the Magpies, they will take on the Crows, Cats and Swans before finishing off with Carlton at home in the final round of the season.

But Pearce isn’t looking too far forward just yet, the AFLW champion focusing on how her side can improve at any opportunity rather than the prospect of a maiden finals campaign.

“I think the team’s mindset at the moment is, you know, how can we improve today…. What can we get after and how can we raise the competitiveness of our own training session?” she said.

“I think you know, to become a really good team and contend at the end of the season, you have to be able to improve through the year, so we’re just really focused on that.

“It’s great to have the carrot of finals, but it’s not our focus. We just want to keep improving and relish the chance to compete this weekend against Collingwood.

“They’ll give us a good chance to practice some of the things that we’ve been working on, which is great.”

Pearce confirmed they would also be boasted at the selection table with multiple players set to be available after illness struck the club last week.

“There’s still a few coming back, but I think everyone should be pretty much putting their name up for selection now and I think done with the worst of it.”

Eagles young gun Lucia Painter is likely to return after missing the last two matches due to the concussion protocols.