West Coast have laid the foundations for their future with coach Andrew McQualter saying the way they challenged premiership favourites Collingwood typified the type of team they want to be.

While the Eagles didn’t walk away with a valuable win, their 13.10 (88) to 8.11 (59) defeat at the hands of the ladder-leading Magpies was arguably their best performance of McQualter’s short reign.

The Eagles led at both quarter and half-time and were never truly out of the contest until the final quarter as they showed spirit and fight that defied the expectations of the industry.

A seemingly proud McQualter said there was a lot to like out of the fighting 29-point defeat.

“We spoke about it with the playing group that we’re never happy with losing but the performance we got tonight was the type of team we want to be,” he said.

“I thought we challenged the best team in the competition to really within a couple of minutes to go in the game.

“Some parts of our game we still need to need to improve on clearly, but there was a lot to like.”

It was a remarkable performance not only because the Eagles sit on the bottom of the ladder with one win so far this season, but also because they were without the top three from last year’s club champion award in Jeremy McGovern, Elliot Yeo and Jake Waterman as well as co-captain Oscar Allen.

“You can always build your belief up with whatever team you put out on the park,” McQualter said.

“We’ve got a lot of exciting, young players in our team and sometimes that gives you a little edge as well.

“It was a performance that was a step in the right direction but ultimately we didn’t get the job done.”

West Coast challenged Collingwood with their rebound off half-back and ability to attack the corridor, while McQualter was pleased with their ability to pressure the opposition.

“The way we want our game to look was that for large periods. I thought we pressured the game pretty well and took some things away from Collingwood,” he said.

“They’re stacked with players that can just find new ways to do it.

“It was a bit of a challenge in the air for us tonight, they took too many intercept marks for what we’d like but that’s the type of game that you want to see us playing in and we’ll keep working on refining that.”

While many inside Marvel Stadium were shocked by the Eagles’ ability to take it up to Collingwood.

Their coach Craig McRae was not the least bit shocked by the Eagles ability to test his premiership-hardened side.

“We knew it was coming. Watching their last month, you look at the worm at their score against and for, they’ve hung in there. They’ve been really competitive, and we knew that was going to be the case,” he said.

“Credit to them and the fight they brought. We had to wrestle our way through that.

“We get feedback every week about our game and what opposition are trying to take away and what we want to maintain, and tonight’s no different.”