West Coast Eagles midfielder Brady Hough says new game style is starting to click after Collingwood loss
West Coast's rebuild is finally starting to click into gear.
In one of their best performances under new coach Andrew McQualter - and in recent seasons - the Eagles stunned premiership favourites Collingwood to lead at half-time.
The Magpies ran over the top of the Eagles to win by 29 points at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night, but it is the strongest sign yet the club is making genuine strides in their long gruelling rebuild.
West Coast's speed off half-back and willingness to take the game on impressed experts and fans in their match-up against heavyweight opponents.
And as they prepare to tackle the back stretch of the season, Brady Hough told The West Australian the Eagles' young guns are starting to make McQualter's game plan sing.
Defender-turned-midfielder Hough was one of the stars for the Eagles in the brave defeat, finishing with a career-high 27 disposals at an incredible 100 per cent efficiency as well as seven score involvements, six clearances and a goal as he begins to grow into his new role.
But it was the style of play the Eagles put out against the Magpies which pleased Hough the most.
'This week especially it felt really good out there. I thought we had some nice passages of play, and it felt smooth and felt the way we wanted to play,' he said.
'It just felt like how we've been training all season and pre-season. I think it's coming together really well and it's exciting to see what happens in the future.'
It was a young midfield brigade of Hough, Harley Reid, Clay Hall and Elijah Hewett that took on an incredibly experienced Collingwood group that featured Brownlow Medal fancy Nick Daicos as well as evergreen veterans Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom.
'It's really exciting to have such a young midfield,' Hough said.
'Fridge (Jack Graham) is the only one with full experience so with me, Hewey and Harley it's a young midfield but we love it and we're only going to get better.
'And Hally coming in and playing a good role for us... I can't wait for the future with those boys.'
A lot of the load is on the young Eagles' shoulders to finish 2025 because four of their senior players in Oscar Allen, Jake Waterman, Elliot Yeo and retired champion defender Jeremy McGovern are all sidelined.
It has led McQualter to consider adding more players to the leadership group to help the only three fit members left in co-captain Liam Duggan, Graham and Liam Baker.
And while he is only 67 games into his career, Hough said wanted to help lead the Eagles now and into the future.
'I do what I can to help them out whenever they (the younger players) need it. We're a really young group at the moment,' he said.
'We have good leaders in Duggo, Fridge and Bakes, while the boys that are injured are still there so there is plenty of leadership around.
'If I can put in my two cents and be a leader around the club, I'm happy to do that.'
Leading into the game there was an expectation that Hough would be charged with tagging Daicos having previously had a successful run with role against Geelong superstar Bailey Smith.
However, the Eagles preferred to go with a team defensive approach and while Daicos finished with 34 disposals, five clearances and a goal he arguably was not at his best early in the contest.
'There was no tag there. I'm a midfielder, he's a midfielder so I am going to find myself on him at stages and he's a really good player,' Hough said.
'We backed in our system to get it done. We didn't want to go after anything like that. We wanted to play our way.
'If he really got off the chain, we might have had to move something, but we backed our system and played the way we wanted to.'
Hough is only early in his career as a midfielder, having made the transition this season after establishing himself as a lockdown defender.
So, it was unsurprising that the 22-year-old learnt a lot from the likes of Pendlebury who has more than 400 games experience.
'You learn a lot, probably when I review the game, I'll learn a lot more than when you're out there and it's going 100 miles an hour,' he said.
'They're all really good players and so experienced as well. So, it's great to be able to head-to-head with them and I'm enjoying my time in there and playing with some good midfielder in there.'
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