An emotional Waalitj Marawar (West Coast) coach Andrew McQualter says they were “open and honest and raw” as they navigated the shock death of premiership Eagle Adam Selwood.

McQualter claimed his first win at the Eagles in an emotionally charged 16.12 (108) to 12.8 (80) victory over Euro-Yroke (St Kilda) at Optus Stadium on Sunday.

It came on the backdrop of what the former Saint said had been “one of the most emotional periods of my life” in the wake of Selwood’s sudden passing on Saturday morning.

“I want to pay my respects to the Selwood family and all our thoughts are with them in this sad time,” a teary McQualter said.

“Adam had a huge influence at our football club, impacted many people that still work at our football club today.

“It has been an incredibly challenging time, and I thought the way our players represented our football club today was something I am, and we are incredibly proud of. In challenging circumstances, I just thought we played the game in the right spirit.”

McQualter said there was no right way to handle the situation in the lead-up to the match.

“We were just open and honest and raw and we let people just have whatever feelings they had,” he said.

“When we got here today, we just asked people to play in the right spirit and up their emotions into being a great teammate like Adam was and we got the performance we got.”

The victory snapped an 11-game losing streak from the Eagles and ended a 291-day drought between victories for the struggling club.

“I know we’ve been heading in the right direction the last month,” McQualter said.

“Our senior players have been leading the charge at work, the way they’re attacking their training it’s helping us improve and become a better team and hopefully from that it’s a bit of a lag effect that results will follow.

“It’s not about me, it’s about the players and their reward today for the amount of effort they’ve put in.”