West Coast coach Adam Simpson believes the Eagles’ toughest challenge is still to come as they prepare to relocate back to Queensland for the regular season run home.

After outlasting a dogged Greater Western Sydney by 12 points, the Eagles are back inside the top four following their eighth-straight win, with a game in hand on the three sides above them on the ladder.

But they are set to leave the comforts of Optus Stadium for at least the next four matches in a condensed fixture, starting with reigning premier Richmond on Thursday at Metricon Stadium.

“We’ve won a few games (at home). I think we’ve probably established a strong identity with how we’re playing,” Simpson said as he reflected on the club’s six-game home stint post-match.

“We lost our way early up in Queensland, reviewed a few things, worked on a couple of things from  a leadership point-of-view and then we carried it out on field.

“There’s a reasonably good brand that stands up and we weren’t at our best tonight but overall we got it done.

“I think that combined with our leaders we’re in a reasonably good space, but we’ve got a bit block coming up.

“We’ve got the Tigers in four days and we’ve got our little compressed season in front of us, where other clubs have gone through that.

“Our real test is what’s in front of us.”

The Giants controlled many of the key stats on Sunday at Optus Stadium, including disposals (+72), contested possessions (+20), centre clearances (+6) and inside 50s (+5), but the Eagles’ efficiency was crucial yet again.

Simpson was full of praise for star duo Nic Naitanui and Jeremy McGovern after the gun ruckman helped West Coast set up an early lead before the intercept-marking defender stood tall late.

Naitanui finished with 14 touches, seven score involvements and seven clearances, while McGovern held 10 grabs – five of which were contested.

“Nic set us up and Gov probably saved us,” Simpson said.

“Inbetween that we had some really good performances and probably didn’t handle the run on as well as we would have liked in the last 15 minutes, but apart from that we thought we played a quality side on the rebound, almost full-strength.

“So to get the win we were really happy with our players. But we’ve got the Tigers this week and we’ve got to go up another level.

“We knew this was going to be a bit of a fight with the Giants coming off a disappointing game.

“Getting that early (32-point) lead was important and they didn’t stop. A lot of the stats don’t look great. We’ll take the win and move on.”