Collingwood may have exposed the gap between the AFL's best and West Coast, but John Worsfold's enthusiasm to keep the Eagles' coaching job appears to be growing.

Worsfold has worked wonders with last season's wooden spooners, transforming 2010's rabble into possible 2011 finalists.

While they are off the pace of the very best - as evidenced by their 52-point loss to premiers Collingwood at the MCG on Sunday - Worsfold is quite rightly proud of his work-in-progress.

And with improvement being shown, the off-contract Eagles coach is looking forward to seeing whether he and the club can agree at the end of the season about continuing his stint into an 11th year.

"Where I'm at is when this season is finished, I'd love to sit down with our management and board, and find out the direction that the club want to go, and my direction," Worsfold said.

"If they match up, and we're all happy, then I would expect we would to push forward with it (coaching the Eagles in 2012).

"If we hadn't shown any improvement, I would be guiding this team and getting them as well prepared as I could for someone else to take over."

Worsfold has said he is comfortable with delaying contract talks until season's end, as Eagles chief executive Trevor Nisbett has publicly flagged.

The Eagles remain in the top eight despite their 16.9 (105) to 7.11 (53) defeat, with a 5-4 win-loss record.

West Coast are also likely to regain backman Sam Butler from injury for their home clash with the Gold Coast Suns next weekend.

Meanwhile Collingwood played down the significance of forward Andrew Krakouer having his arm in a sling after the match.

Coach Mick Malthouse said it was a "precautionary" measure after he copped a knock.

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