Senior coach Adam Simpson says West Coast must “walk towards the pressure” ahead of a critical clash against Sydney in Geelong this Sunday.

The Eagles hung onto seventh spot on the ladder despite going down to the Western Bulldogs by 55 points in a one-sided affair at Optus Stadium in round 15.

However, the chasing pack is closing the gap and a meeting with the sixth-placed Swans at GMHBA Stadium is the perfect opportunity for West Coast to bounce back and keep some breathing space in the battle for top eight spots.

“We know that for us to succeed this year we’ve got to start winning games that we’re confronted with this week,” Simpson told Channel Seven.

“We’ve got to walk towards the pressure, really. We’re really looking forward to it.

“We’re looking to get away, getting a win down in Geelong would be great for us and we’re playing a side that’s above us.

“It’s a great challenge. We’re looking forward to it.”

The Eagles were thoroughly outpointed by the Dogs around the ball, an area that must be rectified before taking on the Swans.

Led by their star skipper Marcus Bontempelli, who had 29 disposals and kicked three goals, the Bulldogs’ engine room ran rampant and dominated contested ball (+30), clearances (+15) and inside 50s (+22).

“We put some work into him but it probably didn’t look like that on TV,” Simpson said of Bontempelli.

“He’s a challenge. He’s a very good player, he’s probably favourite for the Brownlow at the moment.

“We rolled a couple of players through him and we couldn’t stop the damage. Hard to stop. He’s a bit like Dusty (Martin) really, you can mitigate the damage but you can never really stop them.

“We knew coming into the game they were going to be very hard to beat. From start to finish really – they probably should have won by more – they beat us up around the ball, we couldn’t get it out of our back half and we didn’t handle the conditions well early.

“Disappointing result. We’ve got a lot of work to do in regards to the contest and getting some field position through that.

“We’ve got to get that going pretty quick with Sydney obviously being very good at that as well.”