Now Eagles become an ‘anywhere’ team
West Coast have no fears about playing three of their next four matches interstate and will embrace the opportunity to play in Tasmania on Sunday.
The second-placed Eagles are preparing for their most daunting travel period of the year.
They face North Melbourne at Blundstone Arena in Hobart, return to Domain Stadium for a game against Essendon, then clash with Richmond at the MCG on June 19.
Their round-13 bye is followed by a trip to Darwin to play Melbourne.
But in-form midfielder Chris Masten said the Eagles didn’t care where they played.
“We get used to it. We’re doing it every second week so you can’t let it affect you,” Masten said.
“I’m looking forward to it (on Sunday). It’s always good to go somewhere else. It’s a little bit longer, but we go to Brisbane and that’s just as long.
“It is a little bit different weather, but I don’t think that has anything to do with how we’re going to play.”
The Eagles won their only previous game at Blundstone Arena in 2012, fighting back from a 34-point deficit to stun North Melbourne by two points.
More than half of that team didn’t play against Geelong on Sunday. The match against the Demons at TIO Stadium will be the first home-and-away fixture the Eagles have played in the Top End.
The road ahead wasn’t on the players’ minds yesterday as they held their recovery session at City Beach.
The location was ironic given coach Adam Simpson said Nic Naitanui could see City Beach when he took his mark-of-the-year contender against the Cats.
Naitanui’s grab over Callum Sinclair, Jared Rivers and Mark Blicavs triggered enormous reaction, but the 2012 All-Australian ruckman said the hype was unwarranted.
“It’s just another mark,” Naitanui said.
“Hilly reckons I dropped it anyway. It was good fun. It was good to take a mark for once.”
Riding high after winning six games in a row, the Eagles will equal their longest winning run from the past 10 years with a victory over the Kangaroos.
The Eagles were one of three teams with a 6-2 win-loss record entering round nine, but Greater Western Sydney’s loss to the Western Bulldogs helped West Coast’s top-four chances.
“We feel like we’re building,” Masten said. “We’ve definitely improved on where we were last year and we keep improving every week.”
