West Coast coach Andrew McQualter is backing Harry Edwards to play an important role in the back half of the season after the key defender made some important recent strides in his concussion battle.

Edwards hasn't played since being concussed in the Eagles' round two win over North Melbourne in what was his first game back from a pre-season head knock against Port Adelaide.

No exact timeline has been set for Edwards' return, but the sight of the 25-year-old building his non-contact training loads is a positive sign.

Edwards, who was sighted in a helmet at training last week, has a history of concussions, and the Eagles are giving him as much time as he needs to make a full recovery, despite their desperate need for reinforcements.

West Coast's struggles were laid bare in Sunday's 56-point western derby loss to Fremantle, when the Eagles won the inside 50m count but were unable to stop the Dockers' tall forward line.

Jye Amiss kicked five goals and Pat Voss kicked three, while West Coast's Reuben Ginbey performed an excellent job in holding Josh Treacy to just one.

Former Tiger Tylar Young and Sandy Brock have struggled to hold down key posts for the Eagles, with the undersized Ginbey often left to take on the main man in attack.

"There are definitely some positive signs," McQualter said of Edwards' progress.

"We're pretty hopeful Harry will be able to clear all the protocols within the next little bit of time, and from there we'll just have to build up his contest work again.

"He's obviously been out of that (contest work) for a little period now. so we're hopeful in the not too distant future we'll have Harry back playing footy, which is terrific for us."

The Eagles have eight more games until their mid-season bye, and an AFL return for Edwards either just before or after that could be on the cards if everything goes well.

"Harry's a terrific key defender. In that mid period of last year, he was one of the premier key defenders in the competition," McQualter said.

"We think he's got a lot of growth, but he's going to take a little bit of time to build himself back up.

"He's missed a lot of footy now, so I'm pretty sure he'll have to come back through our WAFL program and hopefully we get a big, big chunk of him for the second half of the year."

In the meantime, McQualter will consider giving forward Jobe Shanahan larger stints in defence to help fill the void.

West Coast (2-4) take on St Kilda (2-4) at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.