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Selwood keen to atone for 'poor footy'

Scott Selwood at Eagles training this week. Pic: Sharon Smith/WA News

West Coast midfielder Scott Selwood has delivered a scathing self-assessment of his form this year, telling the club's website that 2014 was the first season he felt he had not played his role for the team.

Selwood, who laboured with an ankle injury for the best part of 10 weeks before limping out of the team after the round-12 loss to Hawthorn, is one of several big inclusions for the Eagles for their clash with Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium on Sunday that could decide their finals destiny.

The beefed-up midfielder, who has put on 5kg in the gym during his time out as the team strives for more midfield muscle, joins Elliot Yeo and ruckman Nic Naitanui in a squad of 25.

Defenders Jacob Brennan, Blayne Wilson and Ash Smith were also added to the team that thumped Melbourne last Sunday.

But the Eagles will rest ruck veteran Dean Cox from one of football's longest road trips and could not consider defender Mitch Brown because of a foot problem. Mark Hutchings will miss the match after straining a hamstring against the Demons.

Selwood was pleased to be back but far from pleased with his form as he battled an ankle problem he suffered in the team's round-three win over St Kilda at Patersons Stadium.

"I was playing really poor footy," he said. "I didn't think I was contributing to the team the way that I wanted to so getting my ankle better and trying to contribute the way I know I can was the most important thing."

Selwood thought he might have fractured the ankle when he hurt it against the Saints but opted to play on after scans of the injury showed the ankle quite stable.

"At the time we thought it was pretty stable and then we kept playing with it and through the training, constant games and things like that it slowly wore out and we just exhausted the joint," he said.

"My main aim is to play my role for the team and this year is probably the first year that I really feel that I have let the team down.

"It was frustrating but at the same time I was doing everything I could to get better. It just wasn't happening for me."

To play finals, West Coast must beat the Suns and hope for losses by Richmond and Collingwood and an Adelaide win over St Kilda that doesn't allow the Crows to overhaul them on percentage.

Yeo, who joined the Eagles after playing 27 games in two years for Brisbane, last played in round 13 against the Suns when a hand injury derailed his season.

Naitanui missed the clash against the Demons last weekend because of Achilles tendon soreness. Brown has played 19 of the 21 games this season, cementing a place in defence, but has battled a foot problem for several weeks.

Gold Coast lost long-kicking defender Trent McKenzie to a hamstring injury.