Former North Melbourne and Geelong forward Aaron Black has given the perfect reaction to being mistaken as a top-up player for West Coast.

The Eagles have been forced to heavily rely on non-AFL-listed COVID-19 contingency players for this weekend's clash with North Melbourne after 12 players from their Round 1 side were ruled out due to the AFL's health and safety protocols.

Josh Kennedy, Tom Barrass, Jack Redden, Brady Hough, Harry Edwards, Hugh Dixon, Isiah Winder, Jake Waterman, Jamaine Jones, Josh Rotham, Nic Naitanui and Zac Langdon are all set to undergo isolation for seven days, while Andrew Gaff has also been sidelined through injury.

The extensive list of casualties has forced senior coach Adam Simpson to dive into his club's 20-player top-up list, with four players from the crop selected to face the Kangaroos.

Among them are ex-AFL trio Stefan Giro, Angus Dewar (formerly Litherland) and Brayden Ainsworth, who all recently played for Fremantle, Hawthorn and West Coast respectively.

The fourth inclusion comes in the form of West Perth's Aaron Black, a Sandover Medal winner and co-captain of the Falcons.

Embed from Getty Images

Black has been a prolific figure in the WAFL across the past decade, having also won a premiership in 2013 and two club best and fairests.

Sharing his name with an ex-Cat and Roos forward has sparked some confusion for Black given the number of former AFL players that have been listed across the league as top-up selections, with Fox Footy's Jon Ralph among those to have mistaken the current state league star for the ex-Kangaroos tall.

When listing off the Eagles' inclusions for Round 2, Ralph mistakenly suggested Black was the latter, prompting the retired 31-year-old to offer a comical response.

"Crap, better get ready," Black said from his couch in a video posted to Instagram.

Black played 57 games in the AFL, 50 of which came at Arden Street before venturing to Geelong at the end of 2016.

The 2009 draftee was delisted by the Cats at the end of 2018 before linking up with the club's AFLW coaching group and VFL side.

The Eagles will enter Sunday's clash with North Melbourne with just 18 AFL-listed players as they chase their first win of the season.