Young gun Charlie Thomas believes West Coast’s backline is building ‘something pretty special’ that she is keen to remain part of next season.

The second-year player flourished after being cemented in the backline this season, averaging 14.7 disposals, 5.3 intercepts with 309.7 metres gained per game.

Thomas credits her improvement to her comfortability on the field and can see other rookies doing the same the more games they play.

“I think there’s a lot of positives that came out of the season. We didn’t get the results we hoped for, but I thought we showed a lot of growth,” she said.

“Going straight back in off already playing a full season played in my favour – the more footy you play in a year the better.

“I was definitely more comfortable this time around and I think we are building something pretty special down in the backline and that’s a really good thing to be a part of as well.”

Thrown around positionally in season six of AFLW, Eagles coaches decided to keep Thomas as a defender  for her second season.

West Coast had some tough challenges against experienced outfits this season which saw the ball come into their defensive 50 more often than they would like.

But the Subiaco product took the pressure as an opportunity to grow and ultimately played a huge part in slowing the momentum of the league’s top sides, finishing fifth in the competition for rebound 50s with an average of 5.4 per game.

“It’s not ideal that the ball is down the back half for majority of games but that comes with a developing group,” Thomas said.

“It fasttracked our learning. It takes a lot of guts to deal with that amount of pressure and I thought we handled it pretty well given the circumstances.

“The culture we’ve developed down there is really special, we all have each other’s backs, so it was actually pretty awesome to be a part of.”

Eager to take her game to the next level, Thomas looked to the more senior members of her team to help her understand her job as a back.

Sidelined for the season, senior teammate Evie Gooch played a huge role mentoring Thomas while she recovers from a long-term wrist injury.

Gooch’s wisdom alongside backline coach Rohan McHugh, helped Thomas learn more this year as a footballer than she ever has before.

“’Goochy’ played a massive role helping me out this year,” she said.

“She gave me some good tips about the inside and outs of the role of a defender and helped me get use to ‘Roey’s’ structures a lot quicker.

“The whole group have a massive bond down back we took on a lot of responsibility this season and I think that really helped us along.

“I think we can become one of the best defensive teams in the competition and I’m excited to get back next year and start working towards that with the group we’ve got.”