The project to rebuild West Coast as an AFL superpower is working, according to coach John Worsfold.

The young Eagles took a huge step towards reloading as a competition force with a thrilling five-point win over the Western Bulldogs away from home on Saturday.

As well as breaking a 19-match away losing streak, Worsfold believes the win shows his young side - minus bonafide stars Daniel Kerr and Dean Cox - can match it with the competition's elite if they work hard enough.

The 2006 premiers will miss the finals for the second successive year, but many of their works-in-progress took huge steps forward in Saturday's 16.6 (102) to 13.19 (97) win at Etihad Stadium.

Defender Shannon Hurn, 21, added to his growing reputation as among the competition's most influential backmen after his superb 31-possession game.

Forward Josh Kennedy - acquired from Carlton in the Chris Judd trade - booted four goals and worked tirelessly, while Matt Rosa, Mitch Brown, Chris Masten, Tim Houlihan and Brad Ebert all successfully matched motors with the top four Bulldogs.

"It reinforces they're good enough to take it up to really good teams and they understand how hard they have to work for where they're at," Worsfold said.

"We still want to get better as a team and we've got a long way to go.

"But it reinforces what they're doing is working well for them.

"The talent we've got in our group, which I've always had a lot of faith in, is developing rapidly."

Most pleasing was how the Eagles responded when the momentum looked to have swung away from them in the final term as the Dogs took the lead for the first time in the match.

West Coast led by as much as 47 points in the first half as the Dogs mixed lacklustre footy with inaccurate kicking.

But when the Dogs fought back to shade the Eagles, most expected they would just keep on going.

Instead the Eagles regrouped and held their nerve throughout the dying minutes.

"You look at the midfield match-ups all day and we shouldn't have been able to compete with their experience and strength," Worsfold said.

"But we've got some very talented and hungry young men in there."

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