The likelihood of West Coast’s leadership trio being available for the club’s elimination final against Collingwood is improving by the day, according to Adam Simpson.

Speaking to the media today, Simpson felt confident that skipper Luke Shuey and joint vice-captains Josh Kennedy and Jeremy McGovern would be available for selection ahead of next Saturday night’s do or die clash at Optus Stadium.

Shuey, who was sitting alongside Simpson at the press conference, all but confirmed his readiness for the final, telling reporters that he would have been ready to go this weekend if a match was scheduled.

Simpson said Kennedy was firming as a certain starter and that McGovern was ahead of schedule in his recovery from a hamstring injury he incurred against St Kilda in round 17.

Of all those mentioned, McGovern is West Coast’s greatest concern. But Simpson said the signs were looking good for the four-time All Australian defender.

“I suppose when you see that injury and the way that he did it you fear for the worst, when it (looks) significant and they struggle to walk off the ground and you can really see an obvious discomfort,” Simpson said about his star backman.

“You fear for the worst and quite often it’s got tendons connected to it, but Gov’s strength has been pretty good from the day he started recovery and the measures we look at are based around strength.

“The exercises we do and the way he taken it so far, he’s been able to take it pretty much as a standard hamstring.

“I think it’s been two weeks today and he’s looking towards playing. But if he’s not right we won’t play him. It’s definitely better than we thought it was.”

After enduring so much adversity on the injury front in the past month, Simpson inferred it was nice to have things seemingly falling West Coast’s way on the eve of the finals.

However, he made it clear fielding his preferred 22 would not guarantee a victory against the Magpies.

“You want your best players playing, there’s no doubt about that,” Simpson said.

“I dare say Collingwood is not far off the same. They might be missing a few players in (Steele) Sidebottom and (Jeremy) Howe might be unavailable. At this time of the year you can only carry so many players if you’re not at full strength, so it’s good to know we’ve got a bit of depth in our squad.

“There’s belief in what we do and when you get to finals football every team just plays their own way and we’ll no doubt be doing that and I have no doubt Collingwood will do the same thing.

“It’s a challenge of talent, but it’s also a challenge of system as well.”

Shuey said the Eagles wouldn’t be sleeping on the Pies, who have quickly become the club’s fiercest finals foe of late.

This will be the third post-season clash between the 2018 Grand Finalists in three seasons, and it looms as another epic encounter.

The Eagles have won the past two finals against the Pies, getting up in a cliffhanger qualifying final at Optus in 2018 by 16 points in front of 59,585 fans and, of course, their famous Grand Final victory three weeks later at the MCG. 

“We’ve got a nice little history us and Collingwood; there’s been some really good games. It’s exciting,” Shuey said.

“They are playing pretty good footy. They pushed Port Adelaide, who are arguably the best team in the competition, right to the end at the weekend.

“We certainly expect them at their best next week.”