West Coast’s star defender Jeremy McGovern is tipped to play in Saturday’s AFL grand final against Collingwood after overcoming a hip injury.

McGovern, who was hurt in last weekend’s preliminary final win, had a fitness test on Friday.

Speaking before the test, Eagles coach Adam Simpson expected McGovern to be cleared to front against the Magpies in the premiership decider at the MCG

“Someone like Gov, he just gets up. It’s just making sure it’s up enough to play in a grand final,” Simpson said.

McGovern’s fitness is the sole doubt hovering over the two sides featuring in a grand final to be contested in cool conditions – Melbourne’s temperature is forecast to reach 14C with morning rain predicted to clear by the 2.30pm AEST start.

Collingwood is eyeing its first premiership since 2010 while the Eagles haven’t captured the flag since 2006.

West Coast last featured in a grand final in 2015 when they were trounced by Hawthorn by 46 points, but Eagles captain Shannon Hurn said his side wasn’t carrying scars from that failure.

“It is hard to keep looking back at it all the time, it has been four years gone by,” Hurn said.

“The best thing we have done as a playing group and a coaching group is (have) a real clear plan on how we want to play.

“It’s a good feeling at the moment but we know we are going to have to play well.”

The decider is the seventh consecutive grand final pitting a Melbourne-based team against a non-Victorian club – and Victorian clubs have won the past five.

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said his side was perfectly prepared to continue that trend but said getting a fast start in front of an expected 100,000-strong crowd would be vital.

“It’s a game of footy so generally you’re wanting to jump into it early and get set, impose the way you want the game to look,” Buckley said.

“Clearly the opposition have a say in that so the challenge is to jump into it and get to work early.”