West Coast young gun Willem Duursma is taking plenty of confidence and learnings from his latest midfield opportunity as the club prepares for Saturday night's clash with Brisbane at Optus Stadium.

One of the highlights of Sunday's clash was Duursma's chance to line up against Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli, a player he admired growing up.

The 19-year-old Rising Star contender produced one of his best games for the year, picking up 20 disposals, with seven tackles and kicking a stunning long-range goal from inside the centre square, while learning from one of the AFL’s best.

"It was pretty awesome," Duursma said of matching up on Bontempelli.

"Childhood me was pretty amazed to start with. I was like, 'wow, that's really the guy I've idolised growing up'.

"He's such a good player. It's why he's the best player in the comp.

"There's little things in his game that you see and there's some pretty unteachable stuff there'."

Despite falling short against the Western Bulldogs, the No.1 draft pick said the Eagles were continuing to build despite the 16-point loss.

"When you look at the metrics and stuff that we'd like to measure, we won all the stats that we'd like to," Duursma said.

"I think we're working slowly as a team, as a young team, to fix up our forward 50 entries.

"The sooner we can get better at that, I think you'll start to see that we win a couple more of these close games.

"That's part of a young team and the learning process. We've got to fix these little things in our game and then sky's the limit from there."

Duursma also praised premiership Lion Brandon Starcevich for the impact he's made since arriving at the club ahead of his first game against his former team.

"He's been awesome," Duursma said.

"The way he defends and puts his body on the line, as you saw on the weekend multiple times, that's the sort of stuff you want to see from your teammates.

"It encourages us to do it more."

The Eagles now turn their attention to an in-form Brisbane outfit, with Duursma backing his side to continue its upward trajectory.

"The Lions are definitely an in-form team at the minute, so it's a really good challenge for us," Duursma said.

"I think the footy we've been playing, if we correct a couple of things, we're going to give it a red-hot crack.

"It's a big game this week in front of the home fans and a big round ahead, but we've got the ability to go out there, regardless of who we're playing, and have a proper crack at it."

Speaking from the Claremont Fire Station ahead of Community Round, Duursma paid tribute to the state's first responders and the vital role they play across Western Australia.

"It's a very special round for us and the first responders in WA especially," Duursma said.

"The work they do for the community, the police, ambulance, fire brigade and all the work they put in for our communities is incredible.

"We finally get to give a bit of recognition and I think it's a really good thing that footy can bring so many different people together."