Getting out of the blocks quicker is one of West Coast’s key focuses heading into Sunday’s clash with Richmond, after a poor opening term put the Eagles on the back foot against Brisbane, gun defender Liam Duggan says.

The Eagles were chasing the game at the Gabba last Saturday after conceding the opening seven goals, and couldn’t close the gap against one of the premiership favourites.

It continued a trend of trailing at the first change that stretches back to the last time the Eagles faced the Tigers in round eight and took a 2.3 to 1.2 lead into quarter-time.

The only exception was the stirring effort at home against St Kilda in round 16, when West Coast led by seven points at the opening break in a rousing nearly-but-not-quite performance against a top-eight contender. 

“A lot of it (team focus) to be honest is the starts to our game. We’ve leaked the first goal quite easily in a lot of our games recently,” Duggan said.

“Again, on the weekend we gave Brisbane a seven or eight-goal headstart before we actually hit the scoreboard.

“Key stats aside, we think getting the start right is the most important thing for us at the moment.

“It’s quite hard to do away from home – I think a lot of teams would put their hand up and admit that – so we need to find a way both home and away to start really well.

“We saw it in the St Kilda game, so we’ve got that proof there we can do it, but I think the start is our biggest focus at the moment.”

Duggan believed the Eagles would take confidence from last start against Richmond, when West Coast hit the front during the third term before the home team surged to a 46-point victory.

But he added West Coast was under no illusions about the challenge as the Tigers hunt a finals berth on the run home, having won four of their last five matches.

“We think they’re finding some form in this half of the year as well, so big challenge for us but super excited with Shannon (Hurn) and Luke (Shuey) back and we’ve got a number of boys coming back through as well who will have their hand up to be available,” Duggan said.

“Some wins would be nice (on the run home). That’s first and foremost. We’ll go into every week with that belief.

“We want to be in the fight, we want to win some games of footy in these last seven rounds and I think we will continue to see the exposure of some of our kids who are starting to really perform.

“Brady Hough was a perfect example on the weekend with a job (on Charlie Cameron) and then able to attack as well and have some impact there.

“Campbell Chesser and Elijah Hewett, we’re starting to see some great glimpses – Reuben (Ginbey) has been doing it all year for us – Noah Long, there’s too many to name.

“We think we’ll be better off for that leading into the seasons to come.”

Duggan spoke to media on Tuesday after training in front of a huge turnout of fans, with hundreds flocking to Mineral Resources Park to support the players during school holidays.

“It’s incredible. It was almost a shock walking out of the shed today and to see that many crew,” he said.

“We were meant to do 10 minutes of signing, I think we ended up doing about half an hour because there was so many numbers, which was great. We really appreciate it.

“People on the fence are telling you how far they’ve travelled just to show their love. We’ve felt that all year.”