The West Coast Eagles kicked off their extended road trip with an exciting 11-point win over the Western Bulldogs on Thursday night at Whitten Oval.

Senior Coach Daisy Pearce said the team are starting to develop a real sense of maturity and belief in themselves and what they can achieve this season.

“Their resilience and ability to grit their teeth and find a way is something that we’ve been trying to improve,” Pearce said.

“They’re maturing, they’re competitive, their belief in themselves is growing, and then we’ve added a number of players who bring that as well.

“Someone like Ali Drennan, who was outstanding tonight, started on the bench in a lot of the quarters, got stuck there for a bit longer than we would have liked at one stage, but still found plenty of the ball.

“That just speaks to someone who’s able to come onto the ground, not get rattled by getting out of rotation or thinking about themselves and just wanting to be out there.

“Someone leading the way like that and then performing when they get out there is a good indicator of some of that maturity that is growing within, and that we intentionally added.”

The Eagles adjusted well to their travelling schedule and were able to overcome a hot-starting Bulldogs for the victory.

“All wins are good wins, but it was a good effort from the girls to be able to navigate the travel,” Pearce said.

“Coming over for a week on the road is a good opportunity to connect and for a group that has a lot of fresh faces, both on-field and off, it’s a great opportunity, but the biggest part is coming over and collecting wins.

“I thought their effort to work through a really hot start from the Bulldogs after going two goals down again, last week it took us to quarter time to respond, but for them to be able to tighten up and get it back going our way early in the quarter was a good result.”

West Coast’s ninth debutant Octavia Di Donato kicked her AFLW career off with a bang, slotting an outstanding goal to secure the four points for the blue and gold.  

“She played an important role on the wing, she’s a really smart player,” Pearce said.

“She makes good decisions in terms of where to be, and to stay in the game and pop up for a moment like that and get her first goal, what a start to her career.

“And it was a great opportunity for her to do it in front of a big group of family, being a Victorian girl as well.”

The Eagles will now remain in Melbourne, taking on Collingwood in week four at Ikon Park before returning to Perth, but Pearce said it won’t severely impact the schedule.

“If anything, it’s just modifying your training load,” Pearce said.

“It’s like the game sort of replaces what would have been a main training session, so recovery becomes a priority, like it always is, and maybe not get as much training in during the week.

“We just have to be sharp, and use the game as a good education tool, which there will be plenty of learnings from tonight.”