WEST Coast won't treat its brutal three-game run home as a series of mini-finals, defender Will Schofield says.
The Eagles sit in sixth spot on the AFL ladder, a game and percentage shy of the top four.
In the next three weeks they face Greater Western Sydney at Spotless Stadium, Hawthorn at Domain Stadium and Adelaide at Adelaide Oval to finish the home and away season.
Schofield said the Eagles would use experience of last year's run to the Grand Final to make sure they peaked at the right time.
"It doesn't feel like finals is starting (this week)," Schofield said.
"I'm hoping the group has got a bit of experience from last year. You've really got to be playing your best footy come finals time.
"We'll use it as a real measuring stick for us over the next three weeks to see where we're at but finals is finals, and we're not there yet.
"It's just great for us to be in the situation where we're playing good teams and we get to measure ourselves against them."
Schofield said the Eagles could control their September destiny with three wins in the final three games.
"It's a good position to be in because we are playing sides above us," Schofield said.
"If we're good enough and are able to beat them I'm guessing we'll move up the ladder. We've got our own destiny in our own hands.
"We'll just finish where we finish and go from there. Hopefully we're in good form. I think we'll challenge most teams with our best footy."
West Coast has won six of its past seven matches but hasn't played its best football during that period.
Fremantle tested the Eagles in the first half of Sunday's Western Derby, with West Coast trailing by 15 points 10 minutes into the second term before kicking 14 goals to four from that point to win by 46.
Encouragingly for coach Adam Simpson, the Eagles were able to lock the football in their forward half for the first time since round 12. The Eagles were ranked third (+7min 08sec) in the competition for time in forward half in the first 12 rounds but slumped to 13th (-4min 29sec) over the next six weeks in the absence of star ruckman Nic Naitanui.
Schofield said winning the supply battle in the midfield was critical for West Coast.
"I think like most teams in the comp you want the footy in your half of the ground and we certainly play our best footy when it's like that," Schofield said.
"Moving forward, that's what we want to do.
"For us to play our footy we want to get that supply and that's a challenge for us and we're going to have a big challenge over the next three weeks."
The Eagles got through the derby unscathed as far as injuries are concerned.
But a number of players, including Naitanui, will need to be managed during the week given they are travelling to Sydney off a six-day break.
