West Coast coach Andrew McQualter can see positive signs after Eagles’ two-point loss to Essendon

West Coast coach Andrew McQualter says the Eagles and midfielder Tim Kelly took a step in the right direction after they put in a fighting performance in a two-point loss to Essendon.

The Eagles led by a game-high 29 points early in the second term, but were over-run by the Bombers in an 11.11 (77) to 11.9 (75) defeat at Optus Stadium on Friday night.

West Coast led for most of the night only to fall away in the final third of the match, and while McQualter said it was “a much-improved performance”, he was disappointed not to get the four points for the first time in his tenure.

“It was really disappointing not to get the win,” the first-year coach said.

“I thought we put ourselves in a really winnable position for leading the game for the majority of the game and even being able to dominate the last quarter but we just weren’t able to score throughout that last quarter.

“In the metrics we looked after there was a fair bit of green in today’s game but ultimately the one we really want to be in the green is the scoreboard at the end of the game and we didn’t quite get that.”

Several senior Eagles including the recalled Kelly as well as ruckman Matt Flynn, Liam Baker and Jack Graham had strong performances which McQualter also praised.

“Maybe one of the things that we take out is some of our players got some form as well today,” he said.

“We’ve certainly had some challenges with form but we were much more connected today and some individuals getting better at their footy which is good.”

McQualter praised Kelly, who rebounded from his axing to the WAFL last week to finish with 22 disposals and five tackles.

“Tim copped another heavy tag today. It’s challenging for Tim, he’s had three tags three weeks in row now… I thought he worked his way through it really well,” he said.

“He worked really hard, he gave us a few different looks with the way we were able to manipulate some stuff. I thought it was a step in the right direction for Tim.

“I’m probably not going to divulge everything here about what we spoke to Tim about, but he’s really clear about what we require from him in his role in our team and I thought he made an improvement in that area today.”

For the first time this season the Eagles won the contested ball count (119-117), rebounding from a record low of 77 just six days earlier against the Blues.

“It was certainly a step in the right direction in that space,” McQualter said.

“To be able to win contested ball, we spent some time training it. Not that much - it is a mindset a lot of the time.

“We just had a little bit better intent this week. We were a bit more proactive rather than reactive which I think everyone saw in last week’s game. To be able to bounce back in that space, it’ll put us in a good position to be able to compete every week.”

While the Eagles won the contested possession count, they were once again beaten at the clearances 37-22 which McQualter said was a big challenge for his side.

“Although we look it at through a few different phases not just the one phase of clearance, when it’s that big of gap there’s a problem we need to get to work on,” he said.

“There’s a few things involved – there’s structure, there’s technique, there’s some method and there’s some personnel stuff that we’ll keep exploring but it just makes it a little bit harder when you’re on the back foot and have to attack from behind for the whole game.

“It can definitely be fixed within the next period of time this year … we need to keep improving who we’ve got. It’s not just about the clearance number, there are certain clearances which are more important that others and the way you set up away from it is important as well but at the moment the gap is too big for us.”