West Coast forward Josh Kennedy says the dying minutes of last night’s game have conjured a spark in the Eagles’ playing style after the match was halted for 29 minutes due to a lightning warning in the fourth quarter.

The Eagles came back onto the field 33-points down after a disappointing third term, and were able to find a surge in momentum which saw them fall to Melbourne by just nine points.

Senior coach Adam Simpson said he thought the side were ‘sneaky chance’ after barrelling home four goals in the final 15 minutes – including a first for mid-season draftee Connor West – while dual Coleman medallist Josh Kennedy said West Coast were able to reignite their trademark pressure.

“There’s a glimpse of what we can get to, and how we can play, and what we’ve been striving to play for a long time,” Kennedy told 6PR.

“So it’s very interesting that when you see most of the boys switched on, we can do some damage like that.

“And we ran out of time, we had a little bit of momentum going our way towards that back end, but I think it was the third quarter and even the start of the fourth that let us down a fair bit.

“It’s where we want to get to, that’s what we want to be as a group, consistently play like that, and we know we can.

"We just haven’t been able to do that, and the positives out of the night was that we were able to see a glimpse of it and know that when we can do it, we can do it.”

Despite the positive takeaways from the match, West Coast will likely head into the Derby without defensive stalwart Shannon Hurn, who was subbed out of the match at the first quarter break with a minor hamstring niggle.

“The grade of it, I’m not too sure how bad it was, he just had some awareness of it, so I think he might’ve caught it a little bit early, which is good, so it might only be one week,” Kennedy said.

“He’s done similar in the past and only missed a week, like I said, he’ll get a scan today just to see how bad it is.

“But I think ‘Bunga’ will be fine. I hope to see him back after the Derby.”

The Eagles now prepare to take on Fremantle in an away match at Optus Stadium with two matches remaining in the home-and-away season.

Both sides will be vying for a finals position, given the Dockers are currently sitting just one win behind West Coast on the ladder, as well as one spot outside of the eight.

“It’s pretty tight for those last two spots in the eight, we’re still sitting seventh, but a lot of teams are sitting there with a game behind,” Kennedy said.

“For us and Freo, it’s a must-win for both teams to get a chance to slip into that bottom eight and then we’ve got to back up with a challenge against Brisbane.

“So, it’s going to be an interesting couple of weeks how it all pans out with about probably six or seven clubs because we’re all sitting there trying to fight for that bottom spot.

“It’s going to be big.”