All Australian duo Shannon Hurn and Liam Ryan will only need to get through another week of training to book their seats on the plane for the trip to face Greater Western Sydney, coach Adam Simpson has confirmed.
The star Eagles have been sidelined since the round four St Kilda loss, with Ryan working his way back from a shinbone stress injury earlier than anticipated.
Hurn’s calf setback ahead of the round seven RAC Derby stalled celebrations for his club record-breaking 291st game, and after another two weeks on the sidelines the 33-year-old veteran is tracking well.
“I think this is the fifth time we’ve said it he’s going to break the record this week,” a tongue-in-cheek Simpson told Channel Seven.
“We won’t be doing another lap of honour for him. If he plays, he breaks the record, it will be in Sydney and we’ll move on, just as he wants it.
“(Liam) and Shannon trained fully last week and the way we do things with longer-term injuries is you need a week of training under your belt before you become available.
“Both those guys got through, but another week to get through before we have match committee but all things are pointing towards those two playing.”
Two-time John Worsfold medallist Elliot Yeo is also not far off seeing some action for the first time since last August following a long-term osteitis pubis battle.
“The next step is for us to have a conversation about does he play a bit of WAFL football to prep himself to play AFL,” Simpson said.
“How many games does he need if he does that? We’ll have an answer for that the next couple of days.”
After a week with plenty of focus on Willie Rioli’s court case, Simpson was pleased West Coast got the job done in a five-goal home triumph over the Crows, which lifted the Eagles to 6-3 - two wins inside the top eight.
“It’s really interesting obviously, the Willie RIoli situation. It’s problematic, we’ve got to deal with it,” Simpson said.
“We’re speaking to all the stakeholders of the football club. We’ve also got to work through the resourcing we have for someone like Willie.
“The soft cap situation we have at the moment we’re 40 per cent down on resourcing and people and making sure we’ve got enough people around – not only to look after the players we’ve got here at the moment – but also to look after the situation Willie’s in.
“Not as simple as it seems, but we’ll have an answer the next couple of days.”
