West Coast coach Andrew McQualter hopes his side gets to be part of Collingwood legend Scott Pendlebury's games record breaking moment.
The fixture is predicted to be held in Round 11 between the Pies and the Eagles at a packed out MCG in 15 days' time. Pendlebury's famous number 10 is expected to be turned gold for the match, drawing criticism from some, but not from McQualter (39 years old) who has known Pendlebury (38) since they were kids.
"I hope (the record-breaking game) is against us if I am being honest, it's an incredible achievement from Scott," McQualter said at his Friday press conference.
"I have known Scott since he was a very young boy, we grew up near each other. He has had such an amazing career and it would be a special occasion to be part of that day.
"I played a lot of basketball against his brother and Scott did play more basketball than footy. I didn't really hear about his footy stuff until he was 17-18.
"He was always pretty good at everything Scott, it turns out he is still pretty good at footy as well.
"We should celebrate it. It should be celebrated, I am a believer in that and I hope that our guys get the opportunity to play in that game because I reckon there would be a fair crowd that turn up.
"Sorry Scott, we will try and ruin your day."
This weekend, West Coast will travel east to take on a break-neck speed and reborn Melbourne side at Marvel Stadium.
Young gun Elijah Hewett has been dropped to the WAFL after a slew of quiet performances. The move to omit Hewett from the senior team comes with speculation that multiple Victorian clubs will target the talented 21-year-old during the upcoming trade period, despite the fact he is a Western Australian.
McQualter said the decision to drop Hewett comes as they look to give him an opportunity as a full-time midfielder.
"We have been in constant dialogue with Elijah and I've got a really good relationship with him," he said. "We probably brought him into the team in a role that's not completely familiar for Elijah.
"He just probably hasn't been able to get into the form that we want in that forward role. His strength is through the midfield so we are going to send him back to the WAFL and part of development is that it's not linear, there are ups and downs and sometimes players need to go and find some form and confidence in their best role. That's all we can do with Elijah, we are going to send him back to the midfield and really build his capacity and game in there.
"We've got a lot of belief that he will become the player that we want him to become.
"We just know how valuable he is for us and our future.
"Same with Harry Schoenberg as well, we are going to send him back to the midfield at WAFL level to play in his best position and let these players show their strengths."
Utility Jack Hutchinson and key defender Harry Edwards are both confirmed to return to the 23.
