It’s currently peak pre-season for the West Coast Eagles, and young forward-ruck Jack Williams and his teammates are feeling positive about the new gameplan coach Andrew McQualter has brought to the nest.

The 21-year-old East Fremantle product reiterated McQualter’s intentions for the squad as the 2025 season fast approaches.

“With ‘Mini’ (McQualter) coming in, we want to become a territory team,” Williams said told 6PR Wide World of Sports.

“We want to take territory, we want to turn the ball over fast and really own forward-half footy.

“We want to be a high-pressure team who can create turnovers, and you’ll definitely be able to see that.”

Williams is embracing the new Eagles era under McQualter’s reign, and said the team will be confident in their preparations come round one.

“It’s a new feel, it’s the start of a new era under ‘Mini’,” Williams said.

“We’ve got a lot of fresh faces around the club, both in the coaching staff and the playing department as well.

“In terms of pre-season, obviously it’s a little bit different with ‘Mini’ coming in, he’s got new structures and a gameplan that he wants to deliver, and we’ve got to spend some time on nailing the basics of that and getting that into our system.

“We’ve been focusing a bit more on the structural part in the early stages of this pre-season, but once we start getting into practice games and seeing it in action, we’ll feel confident that it’s going to stand up.”

After a career-best season in 2024, finishing with 16 goals from 18 games, Williams said he’s eager to lock himself into the forward-ruck role and continue to develop across both positions.

“Mini’ is still looking to have someone who can stand up in that forward-ruck role, help out one of the rucks for a bit of time during the quarters and still have a third tall target down forward,” Williams said.

“I’m looking to cement myself in that role, so I’ve been working hard on continuing to develop my ruck craft, but also keep training hard as a forward as there will be room for a third tall forward up there.”

After a number of pre-season training sessions in 40+ degree heat, Williams said the club does what they can to accommodate the players in the extreme conditions.

“We’ve been starting training a bit earlier before the sun is really scorching down,” Williams said.

“The training staff and coaches are mindful of the heat, so we do things to work around it, longer drink breaks, using fans and sprinklers to keep our temperatures down.

“They do their best to help us, but you can’t do much about the heat, it’s an outdoor sport so we’ve just got to crack in.”