West Coast will be racking their brain on how to contain Essendon captain Zach Merrett on Friday night, but Reuben Ginbey believes there's one teammate who would be fit for the job.
Mid-Season recruit Jack Hutchinson poses as the unlikeliest of taggers, but according to Ginbey, he could be up for the challenge.
Merrett is averaging 33.3 disposals, 4.5 marks, 3.3 clearances, 8.3 score involvements and 6.3 inside 50s as the Bombers' prime mover.
"I don't think we have a set tagger," Ginbey said.
"Jack Hutchinson is a good one that we could call upon. He is super diligent to his role, athletic and strong. He's pretty big, so I think he's one that would be pretty good.
"Merrett is in pretty good form. I don't know how we'll stop him, but we definitely have to try."
Hutchinson joined the Eagles halfway through 2024, and made an immediate impact, playing seven matches, before adding another two this year.
The 23-year-old has shown tremendous potential to play in the midfield, despite being recruited as a high-flying forward.
Standing at 190cm, Hutchinson could be tasked with running alongside the Bombers skipper.
As for Ginbey, he's "enjoyed" a positional switch to halfback, after playing a traditional on-ballers role.
But the 20-year-old hopes to return to the midfield at some stage.
"Going down back, especially with the experience of (Jeremy McGovern) Gov down there, has been really helpful for me," the former Pick 9 said.
"I got moved there in the back end of last year and I really enjoyed it.
"I think for the meantime, I'm happily settling into the backline, but I think as I evolve and grow as a player, hopefully can move into the midfield in the future."
The Eagles are also set to welcome back veteran Tim Kelly into the mix after he spent last week in the WAFL to regain some form.
The @WestCoastEagles will announce their team tomorrow night, but it's looking likely Tim Kelly will make an AFL return on Friday.
Kelly played for the WC WAFL side last Friday, 20 disposals and a goal.
— Ryan Daniels (@FootyRhino) April 16, 2025
Kelly recorded 20 disposals, five marks and a goal in the reserves side, and is expected to be named against the Bombers.
Last week against Carlton, West Coast coach Andrew McQualter entrusted a host of youngsters to combat Patrick Cripps, George Hewett and Sam Walsh, which resulted in an AFL record-low 77 contested possessions.
McQualter said on Wednesday that he'll continue to back in the inexperienced mifielders, but understood they needed support.
"We want to help our players improve, but we've got to set them up to succeed as well. So, potentially, we went too young in the one area last week," he said.
"I'm not really sure, but we think that everybody from last weekend will have learned some lessons and they'll be better for it. But we need to get better quickly.
"We understood that [the midfield] was a challenging area of our game last week. We were clearly young in that area, and it's an ongoing battle that we're going to have."
