West Coast coach Daisy Pearce has praised the mental fortitude of superstar Ella Roberts after she led the Eagles to a breakthrough derby win on Sunday.

Roberts claimed her second derby medal and first in a victorious outfit after starring in the Eagles’ 12-point defeat of Fremantle at Sullivan Logistics Stadium.

The 21-year-old racked up a team-high 22 disposals, four inside 50s and a classy third-quarter goal to go with six tackles, three clearances and 393m gained.

Roberts had previously claimed the honour in a losing cause in 2023 and now joins Fremantle great Kiara Bowers as the only multiple winner of the derby medal, with the Dockers having won the first four in a historic and dominant run.

Pearce said Roberts’ ability to work through the extra attention she received from the Dockers to still be a match-winner showed an increase in her mental strength.

“She’s unbelievable. She works so hard, she’s an incredible talent. More and more she’s starting to understand the influence she can have on others around her,” she said.

“For someone as young as her who gets a tag every single week, to play the way she does and take on everything that comes before her, it’s pretty exciting.

“It was great reward for her to get that recognition today. She had to really grind because they put so much time and attention into her, but she’s getting more and more tools as to how to combat that.

“Mentally, she’s a lot stronger in how to work through a tag, and then her teammates around her are helping as well. The more they grow, the harder it is to go after one of ours.”

For West Coast, it was their fourth consecutive win and has them only percentage outside of the top eight, having started their season with four straight losses.

It puts their quest of another finals appearance back on track as they prepare to head to Alberton Oval to take on Port Adelaide at Alberton Oval on Saturday.

Pearce said the Eagles had enjoyed playing with their backs against the wall for the past month.

“We just keep trying to win the next one. So now we turn our attention to Port,” he said.

“It’s not that dissimilar to any other season, really. You’ve got to stay in the game of winning, you can’t lose too many, and we’re enjoying the feeling of being on the ropes a bit and having to fight every week. And having importance on every game, it brings out the best in our group.

“We’ve just got to stay hungry and keep looking for ways to improve. We’ll come out of today pleased that we got the result, but there’ll be plenty we can keep getting after.”