He may have made a swift recovery from a fractured thumb, but West Coast midfielder Scott Selwood knows it will take something special to fix the Eagles’ broken AFL season.
Sunday’s shock loss to the Western Bulldogs left West Coast three wins adrift of eighth spot and needing to win their remaining five games to have any chance of featuring in the finals.
That will be no easy feat, with the Eagles set to start underdogs in matches against Essendon (away), Geelong and Collingwood (away) during their tough run home.
And with key players Shannon Hurn, Beau Waters, Nic Naitanui, Mark LeCras, Daniel Kerr, Matt Rosa, Chris Masten and Luke Shuey all nursing injuries, West Coast have already started planning for next season.
Selwood is refusing to give up on this year, revealing the player group had set their sights on winning all five of their remaining games in a bid to make the finals.
But he acknowledged the next five weeks would mainly prove to be a learning curve in their preparations for a 2014 assault on the flag.
“There’s some great challenges, not only for the older guys, (but also) for younger guys coming in getting some experience, playing on some really elite players that they don’t quite get to play on in WAFL level,” Selwood said on Monday.
“There’s some great lessons to be learnt for them guys.
“And then the older guys, we get to play with the young guys and learn how they work.
“There’s lots of things we can learn over the next five weeks and we’re excited at the challenge ahead of us.”
Selwood tallied 23 possessions and laid 11 tackles against the Bulldogs in his first game back from a broken thumb sustained when an opponent trod on his hand.
Initially Selwood was ruled out for two months, but the 2012 club champion ended up missing just four games.
West Coast take on Gold Coast at Patersons Stadium on Saturday, and Selwood is likely to find himself opposed to star Suns midfielder Gary Ablett.
Selwood said he wouldn’t lose any sleep over the potential match-up, but conceded he would have to be on his game to curb the prolific midfielder.
“He’s got a lot of tricks in his bag and he’s extremely smart and works extremely hard. He’s just a class act really,” Selwood said.
Veteran Eagles winger Andrew Embley will return from suspension against the Suns, while Brad Sheppard and Adam Selwood are also in line for recalls.