West Coast Eagles coach Daisy Pearce is confident of remaining at the team beyond the end of her contract, which is set to expire at season’s end.

Despite a shaky start to the season, Pearce’s Eagles have steadied after four straight losses, with Sunday’s 11-point victory over a battling St Kilda their second on the trot.

The Eagles’ rough start to the 2026 campaign has left them two wins off eighth spot at the halfway mark of the season, even after a confidence-boosting win over St Kilda.

With Pearce’s three-year contract set to end after this season, it may have raised fears among fans and players the popular coach may not be at their Lathlain headquarters in 2027.

But speaking after West Coast’s win over the Saints, Pearce said she expected to lead the team into next season.

“I’ve seen enough to know this team’s going to be a team to be involved in. There’s a lot of young talent, but they’ve got great leadership and the way they’re showing commitment to each other and are really committed to where the team’s heading is exciting,” she said.

“I expect to be there moving forward. It’s an exciting team.”

The next three weeks looms as critical for West Coast. They will stay in Melbourne to take on Essendon on Friday, then fly back home to chase a historic-first AFLW western derby win over Fremantle, before jumping on the road to face Port Adelaide.

None of those sides are currently in the AFLW top eight and the upcoming fixtures present a good chance for West Coast to push themselves back in the finals mix — but Pearce said they had other goals beyond just post-season football.

“(Finals) is not an expectation. It’s what we aspire to play in. We want to just keep turning up and improve on our footy week-to-week,” she said.

“If we turn up with that kind of intent and have an attitude of being hungry learners throughout the week, regardless of whether we’ve won or lost, we’ll give ourselves every chance because we’ve got a talented group, and when they play together and want to improve every week, who knows?”

After a second win in a row, Pearce said part of their turnaround could be contributed to an improvement in their team defence.

“Our first two games were quite poor defensively. Getting our defensive system right, people really valuing their roles on defense and how it helps us to be able to win the ball back in more dangerous areas and be able to score off that, I thought in that part of the game we were a bit off in the first two weeks,” she said.

“It’s been better since then, but we ran into Adelaide on the road and then Melbourne. Our last month’s been better, but now being able to turn that into a bit of evidence with wins has been important.”