West Coast coach Adam Simpson will back Jonathan Giles and Nathan Vardy in the ruck even if Sydney is without their two key big men for Thursday night’s crucial clash.
The Eagles won their opening two games of the AFL season against North Melbourne and St Kilda.
But it was a familiar story losing at the MCG to Richmond last Saturday, and now they return to Domain Stadium to take on the winless Swans.
The Swans will be hungry to open their account for 2017 but arrived in Perth minus ruck pair Kurt Tippett and Sam Naismith, meaning ex-Eagle Callum Sinclair could be their lone ruckman.
West Coast remain without the injured Nic Naitanui, Drew Petrie and Scott Lycett, leaving Giles and Vardy to share the ruck duties.
That hasn’t quite paid off so far but Simpson will stick with the pair and will want to continue with having one in the ruck and the other forward.
“A lot of teams play a ruck and a forward-ruck and that is what Vardy is,” Simpson said.
“When you have got a dominant ruckman who can ruck all day that is great and teams will take that but we don’t have that. We have got two workhorses who need each other to get through the four quarters.”
Forward Jack Darling remains in doubt with an ankle injury but his availability won’t influence Simpson’s selection decision.
He doesn’t want to use Darling as a back up ruckman at the expense of either Giles or Vardy either.
“You’d hate to win or lose games because you’re too tall or too small but you need to look at the bigger picture sometimes,” Simpson said.
“I think there is an option there one day to do that with Jack or even (Jeremy) McGovern in the ruck but it just takes away a bit from what they’re in the side for as well. We won’t be doing that this week.”
Meanwhile, there’s no panic at the Swans after the 0-3 start. Defender Nick Smith is confident of changing their fortunes in Perth.
“There’s a few little things costing us at the moment,” Smith said.
“I think generally our intent has been OK and it’s not like we’re not trying and that kind of thing. We just need it to all come together and for us to play all together, then those little things all help a little bit more.”
