So now Chris Scott is starting to learn a little about what it is like to be an AFL coach.

Two losses on the trot, a 13-2 record after 15 matches and the Cats have been brought back to the field just that little bit.

We posed the question earlier this season about whether the Cats were very good, or very lucky. The withering second half comeback on Friday night against West Coast Eagles - after looking gone for all money at half-time - was the sign of a very good side.

And they were pushing right until the very end. Who knows? Another five minutes and the Cats might have found the extra two goals to win the game. Certainly, the Cats had the ball in their forward 50 for much of the final term as they continued to press, and they butchered the ball a wee bit too much as the clock wound down.

So now the Cats are second on the ladder and have probably found their level. The luck that has been undeniably theirs all season, is starting to run the other way.

But to dwell too much on the Cats would be churlish because this was West Coast's night.

The Eagles started slowly, but their 30 minutes of football from midway through the first term until half-time was sublime. A three-goal deficit blew out to a 40-point lead at one stage in the game.

The Dean Cox-Nic Naitanui ruck combination was again outstanding and provided the centre square spark for West Coast and the forward line issues for the Cats. Andrew Embley, with 32 touches is again in All Australian form and his last quarter snap goal to seal the deal was brilliant. Mark Nicoski, Mark LeCras and Josh Kennedy also chimed in as required, but it was an even team performance from West Coast and it has been the hallmark of the side all year.

It is hard to believe we are watching the same team that limped to the wooden spoon last year. Coach John Worsfold was defiant the whole time, assuring anyone who cared to listen that the transformation would come and the Eagles would climb quickly back up the ladder. The problem for Worsfold - and the mistake by the rest of us - was that we wouldn't listen. We were too busy scanning the fixture to determine which would be the match that would deliver the knock-out blow to the soon-to-be-uncontracted coach.

Worsfold is going nowhere. The Eagles are tall up forward and quick through the midfield, and they're able to keep the scoreboard ticking over while boasting a solid and sturdy defense.

Importantly, they have established Subiaco as a fortress once more and it is doubtful they will lose at home again this year. And given their last game outside Perth resulted in a handy touch-up of third-placed Carlton, they're good things to pass either the Blues or the ailing Hawks at some stage between now and the end of August to secure a top-four berth and a double chance in the finals.

The Eagles are a bolt from the blue that nobody outside Western Australia saw coming.