Reflecting on a productive season, dual AFLW All-Australian Dana Hooker challenged West Coast’s young team to lift again and keep the standards set by the club high.

The vice-captain was extremely pleased with the manner the young group carried themselves following the club’s decision to refresh the list and implement a 15-player changeover prior to the start of the season. 

“Viewing this season as a whole we’ve taken some good steps. The side looks very different than what we had eight months ago but we’ve brought some youth into the side and are moving in the right direction,” Hooker said.

“It’s been good to welcome the new players in and get some games under their belt and we’ve built some consistency around the staff in the program which can only bode well for the future.

“If I’m honest it was a little bit disappointing the way we finished the season, there was some close games that just slipped through our fingers which we could have got some extra wins from, but on the whole I think we are growing and we’ve started to pave the way for the future.”

At the conclusion of season six, the Eagles’ players and staff identified professionalism as a key area of improvement and made huge strides to advance the way they go about their program.

Hooker confessed the changes revolutionised the Eagles’ side and is a crucial factor to team’s progress moving forward.

“One of the biggest highlights this year for me was thinking back to pre-season the club made some big changes to change the way we approach things heading into to the start of season,” she said.

“For me, after playing four seasons at this club, the way we went about our business and the way the club and the staff have really embraced this program (was positive).

“Being able to train on a Wednesday and having access to the facility all the time meaning we were here less late at night made a huge difference.

“It’s really affected the way we can train, our fatigue levels, what we have access to in terms of the technology and staff availability at the club - we really notice it as players.”

Now with a foundation set the team intends to take another step bridging the gap to the competition’s top teams, with another challenging pre-season planned when the team returns to Mineral Resources Park in 2023.

“The next step will be to take a good break first a foremost to refresh so we can get that excitement again to start another season,” Hooker said.

“But then we need to work hard again under our coaching staff and really raise the standards that we had, we took a really positive step with our pre-season this year with how hard we worked.

“But we need to get better again to catch up to those top sides, we know we are close to those middle teams around the competition and we were really competitive but if we want to get there we are going to have to worker 50 percent harder than everybody else.

“That means our fitness levels and work in the gym needs to be high but more importantly I’d love to see a bit of match sim giving opportunities for players to learn out on the field.

“For us to grow as a team the key is just to keep playing more footy together and building games into our youth.”