West Coast defender Tom McCarthy has declared there is a different, more positive feeling internally at the Eagles which is showing up in the stats despite being on the wrong side of the win-loss ledger.

Ahead of a trip to Marvel Stadium on Sunday to face St. Kilda, McCarthy said there was plenty of positivity while acknowledging plenty of room for improvement following another western derby defeat to Fremantle.

A win would not only be the Eagles’ first at the ground since August 2023, it would also be the first time since 2021 they had won more than two of their first seven games and would allow them to leapfrog the 13th-placed Saints on the ladder.

McCarthy said he felt there had been a shift for the better in terms of the mood at the club compared to last year and despite four losses from six, they felt their efforts was showing up in the stats.

“It’s a different feeling to last year. We were losing multiple games in a row, and there’s a way different feeling. We’re up on stats, there’s some metrics that we’ve gone after, and we’ve dominated in,” he said.

“Freo are a good stoppage team, and I thought we rectified them on the weekend. There’s areas of the game we’re loving at the moment. It’s just sometimes, there’s skill errors, sometimes a bit of inexperience.

“The wins are going to come, we know it. We’re just going to stay patient and know what we’re going to go after is going to work.”

West Coast’s ball movement is one thing that McCarthy feels has changed for the better and the stats back him up.

Per Champion Data, the Eagles are ranked 13th for clearances to score and 12th for both half-back to score and score per inside 50, when they were were bottom two in the league across all three metrics last year.

“Our ball movement last year, we were near-last in the comp for how we were moving the ball and we looked at different ways we can score this year and move the ball out of our back half,” McCarthy said.

“We’ve simplified the game-plan a bit so our younger guys can understand it more, and that’s really helping with how we can move the ball up the ground.

“There’s still work to be done through there, but I’m liking the progress that we’re seeing, and our young guys are really on board with how we want to move the ball.”

After starting in midfield, McCarthy has spent more time in his more traditional half-back role in recent weeks and while he was enjoying being back in the defensive 50, he was thankful for how his pre-season in the middle had honed other areas of his game.

“I thought I’d had a bit of a slow start to the year. I’m pretty happy with how I’m going the last few weeks, and there’s a lot of improvement left, but I’ve been able to get my game going a bit more, which I’m happy about,” he said.

“I worked a lot on my contests. I thought it wasn’t as good last year, so I went after that in the pre-season and being able to impact one-on-ones and aerial contests through the back line, that helped with my pre-season in the midfield, getting a bit bigger and stronger through the contest.”

However, with the recent injuries to midfielders Deven Robertson and Jack Graham, McCarthy said he would happily play wherever coach Andrew McQualter needed him.

“It obviously depends on what Mini wants, but Mini tells me he likes that versatility that I’ve got. Midfield is always going to be an option there for me — but right now, probably half-back is where it’s going to be, we’ve got guys like (Willem) Duursma and (Elliot) Yeo to keep going through there.”

Co-captain Liam Duggan has been a target for criticism from fans early this season, but McCarthy said the premiership-winner was a pivotal part of their team and backed him to respond.

“Internally, he as important as a player as anyone in our team. He knows there’s always areas he needs to improve on, the same as the other 23 blokes in the team.

“I’m happy I look up to him, I’m inspired by what he does.”