The double chance appears a formality for West Coast, but it is an AFL carrot that coach John Worsfold refuses to dangle in front of his players.

Apart from another poor third term, the Eagles had little trouble in beating Melbourne by 48 points on Sunday at Etihad Stadium.

The 16.14 (110) to 9.8 (62) win kept the fifth-placed Eagles on track for fourth spot with three rounds left.

Carlton currently hold fourth, but they have the round-23 bye.

West Coast are only half a game behind and they will round out the season with Saturday's home game against Essendon, a trip to Brisbane and another match against Adelaide.

They are all games where the Eagles will start warm favourites.

"You'll know that in three or four weeks' time, without embracing it now," Worsfold said.

"I'm sure they are striving for it, but they're not embracing it as a fact now.

"We don't talk about it (the top four) - we're focused on improving the way we're playing.

"There were patches today where we were pretty average, so we just want to keep improving and get better."

While the Eagles had their fifth win on the road this season, Worsfold was at a loss to explain why they again fell away in the third quarter.

They were leading by 53 points just after halftime, but Melbourne rallied with five goals to three for the term and trailed by only 32 early in the last quarter.

"It's been as issue for us for a fair while, the third quarters - the Bermuda Triangle," Worsfold said.

"But one of the key things we want to focus on as a team is improving across the board, not specifically in one quarter.

"We want to be able to play consistent footy over four quarters, and better football."

Andrew Gaff, with a game-high 33 disposals, and Andrew Embley were superb on the wings for West Coast.

Melbourne never gave up, but their turnovers were glaring.

It was also noticeable that younger players such as James Frawley, second-gamer Sam Blease and three-goal key forward Jeremy Howe starred.

Aaron Davey clearly is struggling for fitness, while Colin Sylvia made a couple of glaring errors in the first half before rallying in the third term.

"To their credit, they came out and put all the junk from the second quarter away again and put a pretty solid second half in," said caretaker coach Todd Viney.

"But there were still too many mistakes that gave them some easy goals.

"Overall, they (West Coast) were too good."

Melbourne lost captain Brad Green as a late withdrawal with soreness.

Impressive young Eagles midfielder Luke Shuey went off in the third term with a sore hamstring, but West Coast say that was only a precaution.

The Eagles hope to regain key players Darren Glass and Beau Waters for the Essendon clash.

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