While incremental improvement in the last few games has been pleasing, coach Adam Simpson will not be satisfied until the West Coast Eagles again taste that winning feeling.

The Eagles have won just once in 13 games this season – against Collingwood in round four – but have shown improved form in the recent weeks, particularly against Geelong last Saturday when they ran the fourth-placed Cats to within three goals.

Simpson said there was no secret to the upward trend, citing the correlation between the improved form line and the availability of senior players.

“Getting that winning feeling back would be nice, but it’s not as easy as you think,” Simpson explained today. “It takes time, getting belief, expectation and all of those things in play. The last couple of games we have played we have been better but we haven’t had a win.

“There are definitely signs of improvement but it comes with personnel as well, so we have to be honest with that. The stronger the team the better you should look.”

The Eagles will be looking to take that quantum leap from being competitive to securing four points when they play Essendon at Optus Stadium on Friday night.

The Bombers will come to Perth full of confidence after an outstanding performance against St Kilda last week.

“They have been a little bit like us, down on confidence, not as consistent as they would have liked coming off a really good year last season,” Simpson said of the Bombers. “But their kids are coming through really well and they beat up the Saints last week.

“(Their) Contested ball looked really strong, they looked dangerous with the ball and they defended really well so it’s pretty simple; deal with those three things and you’re going to be okay. They got good evidence last week.”

While the Eagles will be without champion defender Jeremy McGovern who had surgery on broken ribs yesterday, the club is looking forward to the return of star midfielder Tim Kelly, electrifying forward Liam Ryan and utility player Samo Petrevski-Seton.

All three were out with influenza against the Cats and the return of Kelly would bring together the club’s A-Grade midfield for a rare time in the last couple of seasons.

Provided he gets through the training program for the remainder of the week he will join Luke Shuey, Dom Sheed, Andrew Gaff and Jack Redden in the engine room.

“The flu is getting around isn’t it. They’re all here today, they will train today. Hopefully they get through and they’re all available,” Simpson said. “If we get Kelly back, we will have the midfield together that we were planning in pre-season, but it hasn’t quite comer together.

“We had seven come back last week. Liam should be available Kelly and a few other guys so we should look a bit stronger.”

In further encouraging news a return by champion ruckman Nic Naitanui is also imminent. A decision on his return will be made later in the week.

The dual John Worsfold medallist has not played since that round four victory against the Pies but has made strong progress and is an outside chance to play in the WAFL this week.

But Simpson and the match committee are cognisant of the balance between bringing seniority back into the team while also giving valuable games to the club’s next generation.

“Nic is not far off, this week or next week,” Simpson declared. “Once again at training we will see how that looks and make a decision on whether he comes back through the WAFL or comes straight back into the side. We will see how he pulls up after training today.

“Finding that balance for us is really important, now that we have some older players who deserve to play and some young player we want to expose. (Brady) Hough and (Rhett) Bazzo are part of our future so we want to give them opportunities.”