GEELONG coach Chris Scott remained confident that his side could pull away from West Coast in the late stages of the game, even when the Eagles threatened to get within a kick in the opening minutes of the final term.

Not because the last-placed were going to roll over – the home side had shown more than enough in the second and third quarters to dismiss that notion – but because Scott knew recent history showed that his side were one of the best final-quarter teams going around.

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And so it proved. Noah Long missed the shot at goal that would have cut the margin to one point, and Geelong booted seven of the last eight goals to win by 43 points, with Jeremy Cameron helping himself to four of those.

"What we are confident in is the way we finish games," Scott said after the match.

"And you can't rely on that. There will come a point where if you keep talking about how good you are without doing it, it doesn't make it so anymore.

"But again, at three-quarter time, the game was right on the line. I thought that we finished off the game well, not only in terms of the stuff you were talking about – the contested ball, the tackling. There were some strong plays in there. We needed to tackle well.

"Our side is different to the one that we had four or five years ago. And we tend to sort of move with the shifts in our personnel in terms of the way we play. And one of the things that is pretty strong at the moment is our ability to close out games."

Scott conceded there was a measure of frustration that Geelong had controlled the first quarter without dominating the scoreboard, but made a point of highlighting West Coast's recent improvement under Andrew McQualter's coaching.

"I'm not sure that if we were four or five goals up a quarter time that it would have changed the game that much. I thought, you know, we were up for a really competitive game and, you know, it's clear the way that they're trying to play," he said.

"I try not to spend too much time talking about opposition teams, at least publicly, but they're a lot better team than they were eight weeks ago."

Scott said superstar veteran Patrick Dangerfield was on track to return from a hamstring injury for the crucial clash against fellow top-four rival Gold Coast at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday.

McQualter was left to rue West Coast's slow start, when the Eagles trailed by 29 points early in the second quarter before mounting a comeback inspired by co-captain Oscar Allen, second-year superstar Harley Reid and veteran midfielder Tim Kelly.

"First quarter, we were clearly blown out of the water. Geelong's pressure was unbelievable, but I think we fuelled that too. We just couldn't find any control in the game, partly due to their pressure, partly just to a little bit of our method we had in the first quarter wasn't right,' McQualter said.

"So we made some adjustments and I thought our players competed really hard for the middle two quarters and probably a half of the last quarter.  

"I think we had a shot to go even, maybe 10 minutes into that last quarter, and the game was going OK and then Geelong's class probably stood out the last 15-20 minutes of the game."

McQualter praised the efforts of the Eagles' backline, and particularly Reuben Ginbey who held Jeremy Cameron to one goal in the first three quarters before the Coleman Medal leader feasted on a tiring West Coast side with four final-term majors.

"I thought he competed hard, I thought Harry Edwards competed hard, I thought our backs competed hard for large periods of the game as a whole," he said.

"Look, Cameron's a great player. He's hard to stop completely. I thought whatever we've been keeping him to – one shot to three quarter time, just after that – it's a great effort. He got away from us a little bit in the last quarter, a couple of maybe lucky ones in my opinion, but he's a good player who will do that to you."