West Coast coach John Worsfold says it's too early to be dreaming of finals football despite the Eagles' sparkling start to the AFL season.

Last year's wooden spooners have been the surprise packets of 2011, their 54-point thrashing of Melbourne on Thursday night their third win from five games.

West Coast face fellow top-eight hopefuls Essendon at Etihad Stadium on Sunday week and Worsfold said that clash would give him a clearer indication of the team's prospects.

"If we would have won five I would be a little bit excited (about possible finals)," Worsfold said.

"But we've lost to Hawthorn and Sydney - games that we had a chance to win.

"To make the finals you have to win some of those games. That's where Essendon presents a great challenge for us to see where we're at."

Despite copping heavy criticism over recent years in slumping from premiers to easybeats, Worsfold's faith in his group's potential remained strong.

That belief is starting to pay handsome dividends, but Worsfold was modest when asked if he had felt vindicated by this year's impressive turnaround.

"I'm not trying to vindicate anything," he said.

"I've still got a strong belief and faith in this group going forward that they can become a very powerful group of players.

"But there's a massive amount of work we've got to do to prove that, and that's what we're aiming to do.

"Starting this season in reasonable form hasn't really vindicated anything to what we want to do.

"(We are) absolutely focused on doing the hard work to see these guys achieve real success."

Forward Jack Darling, a steal at pick No.26 at last year's national draft, continued his bright start with 14 possessions and three goals against the Demons.

Worsfold said the 18-year-old would only improve over the next six years.

"I would say that he's performing above what I had hoped," Worsfold said.

"But I wouldn't say I'm surprised because we were warned that he was talented. Our recruiting guys rated him really highly."

Worsfold was also pleased with the output of forward Mark LeCras, who booted 1.3 from 12 possessions in his first game back from a serious groin injury.

"It was great to have Lecca back out there. He was a little bit rusty but three quarters of footy out of him was a good result for us," Worsfold said.

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