After an indifferent four weeks many sensed that the West Coast Eagles’ return to form was only around the corner, though few would have predicted an 82-point thrashing of the ladder-leading Adelaide Crows.

Saturday afternoon saw West Coast post its highest score and greatest winning margin for the season, made all the sweeter by the absence of players in the club’s best 22 including Dean Cox, Chad Fletcher, Adam Hunter, Mark Nicoski and late withdrawal Andrew Embley.

“We didn’t really think about that,” said half-forward Rowan Jones at Sunday morning’s recover session. “We’ve got such a strong list and probably our strength this year is our depth with guys coming in who can do the job. It’s just a bonus to have those guys coming back in the future weeks.”

After struggling to find four-quarter efforts for the majority of the season, the Eagles never lost their stranglehold on the top-of-the-table clash, kicking the first five goals of the match and building on their lead in every quarter.

Despite the much-vaunted Crows heading into the match as favourites on the back of some imposing performances, West Coast’s preparation for its opponent was no different.

“We just stuck to our game plan like we try to do most weeks,” Jones said. “I guess yesterday it maybe worked a little bit better than most, but I think our pressure all over the ground and in the one-on-one contests was what won us the game.

“I just think we’ve been striving all year to put a four-quarter performance together. We haven’t really had one for a long time. We’ve been working towards it and finally yesterday it came.”

Responsible for West Coast’s eight multiple goal-kickers - in part - were nine players who accrued 20 possessions or more; Jones with 25 of his own.

“There were quite a few handballs in the day but that was one of our strengths,” he said. “We ran the ball out of defence quite well just using the open man and getting everybody into the game.

“I (also) think we tackled very well. That was one of the focuses before the game to put pressure on the Adelaide ball carrier. They like to run and handball and create and use a lot of teammates so it was good to achieve that.”

As convincing as West Coast was, a mouth-watering clash against St Kilda at Telstra Dome on Friday night awaits; that club 103-point victors over Richmond.

“The Saints are in great form,” Jones confirmed. “They showed yesterday that they are still capable of playing some very good football, with Fraser Gehrig up front, so it’s just a big game in that respect. (They’re) another good team to test ourselves against.

“It is a big stage, but I guess most weeks is a big stage for all of the guys playing. We haven’t played a Friday nigh this year, we played a Thursday night against the Saints to start the season. And we played particularly well so hopefully we can repeat that.”