West Coast coach Andrew McQualter will have plans in place to limit dual Brownlow medallist Patrick Cripps but concedes stopping the Carlton skipper won’t be easy.
Cripps looms large in the pivotal midfield battle as the Eagles and Blues meet at Adelaide Oval in Gather Round in search of their first win for the season.
“He’s a really good player, Cripps. Dual Brownlow medallist, very hard to stop, huge body,” McQualter said at Unley Oval in Sturt on Thursday.
“We’ll be looking at our best plans that we can put in place to try and curtail his influence, but he’s not easy to stop either.”
The Eagles have changed things up in their engine room, with McQualter confirming Tim Kelly will play for the WAFL Eagles on Friday night against Subiaco.
“Tim has missed out this week. We’ve been really clear with Tim with what’s required of him within his role,” McQualter said.
“Tim was really understanding, disappointed as you would expect, but we are really supportive of Tim that he’s going to get back to his best footy.
“It’s about picking a team and rewarding the right behaviours every week and a team that can win each game of footy.”
On debut last round, Tom Gross added some spark to West Coast’s onball brigade and Harley Reid flipped from half-back for some centre bounces, while Clay Hall has added some grunt around the contest.
“We’re trying to pick a team that can really complement each other,” McQualter said.
“Clearly we’re going to be a bit younger in that space, that’s obvious, but that’s also exciting as well.”
The Eagles are expecting spearhead Jake Waterman and fellow All-Australian forward Liam Ryan to be available for the Blues clash.
Tough wingman Jack Hutchinson is also in the mix after overcoming a hamstring complaint from round one.
Saturday’s match will also be the first time hard-working forward Matt Owies faces his former side since his trade to the Eagles last October.
“He’s excited. He helped us this morning with our oppo presentation,” McQualter said.
“Clearly, he was a great servant of the Carlton footy club but he’s now one of our players and as with all of our players wants to beat them this week.”
