Champion spearhead Josh Kennedy says mindset is the key for West Coast to rediscover its best football more consistently.

After losing to Collingwood on Saturday at the MCG, Kennedy explained there was much to improve on – including work rate and effort – before the side’s top-eight clash with Melbourne on Monday.

“I think for us as a unit, there’s that mindset and there’s that effort which is individual, and guys need to find their trigger to switch on and bring what they need to bring on game day,” Kennedy told 6PR.

“And then there’s the connectivity on ground, defending as a unit, which we were quite bad.

“It is a massive concern, you have everything in place, your preparation going into a game, you know what you need to do, you know what you need to do as a team.

“When effort’s not there it’s pretty hard to execute what you want to do, kind of ebbs and flows in games which has been an issue for us this year, and consistency over four quarters.”

As the side prepare to face a strong Melbourne outfit – bolstered by the likes of Brownlow favourites Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver and All-Australian ruckman Max Gawn – Kennedy said the side must ‘dig deep’ and improve quickly, from more senior players to rookies alike.

“Melbourne, they’ve been one of the best teams all year, they’re in really good form,” Kennedy said.

“They’re coming over here to play us, so it’s another really big challenge for our group, to play against one of the best teams, but then also find individually what they need to do perform well.

“Then collectively as a group being able to defend a lot better than we did against Collingwood, because Collingwood pieced us apart.

“They were 10 goals up at the second quarter, which we don’t want to do, and Melbourne are a quality side and can do exactly the same if we bring the same intensity.

“We’re still a chance to make finals, so we’ve got to dig deep, everyone as an individual, from a first-game player right up to us older boys, we’ve got to get better.”

Return hopefuls including captain Luke Shuey (calf) and key defender Tom Barrass (hamstring) may assist in boosting the side’s numbers before the match, dependant on their training throughout the week.

Together, the duo’s return will provide West Coast with an additional two premiership players and 316 games’ experience.

“I think ‘Boots’ (Luke Shuey) has had his two weeks, he’s built into a bit of training last week, so he’s looking pretty confident and hopefully should be back,” Kennedy said.

“Then Tommy Barrass is pretty similar, he’s done a fair bit of training over this weekend and a little bit last week with us.

“Both of those guys are looking like a possibility of being back, which is fantastic.”