West Coast utility Liam Duggan admits he’s feeling ‘frustrated’ with an underlying knee injury which has left him unable to compete in the round 22 Derby this weekend against Fremantle.

The powerful midfielder was named as a late out against Melbourne on Monday and scans have revealed he’ll spend a second weekend on the sidelines.

“(There’s) just a few new things going on in there,” Duggan told SportFM.

“A little bit frustrating that I had to miss the game on the weekend, and certainly frustrating to miss a game like this Derby with a lot riding on it.

“So it’s a bit flattening, but it’s the best decision for my knee.”

To claim their 12^th consecutive Derby win, West coast must combat an in-form Fremantle who are also contending for a top eight position, with youngsters such as Caleb Serong, Adam Cerra and Sean Darcy credited for moulding the side into legitimate finals contenders.

“There’s a bit riding on this one, obviously so late in the season, both teams are still around the mark,” Duggan said.

“We’ve had some great games obviously, and since I’ve been at the club we’ve had a pretty good run of success and been very lucky to be a part of that.

“It’s been great to be able to win all of those games, I figure every time it keeps going and we win one more, there’s tension and that excitement around the game that Freo are trying to break that run.”

While Fremantle will enter the match with an understaffed engine room – minus ruckman Rory Lobb (ankle), Nat Fyfe (hamstring) and Andrew Brayshaw (suspended) – they also hold a home ground advantage for the first time since 2019 after playing only one Derby last season.

“I’m sure the Freo boys would be pretty excited by that, especially that we’ve got a crowd in there this time,” Duggan said.

“You look forward to the Derby nonetheless, but certainly when you’ve got a home crowd.

“The Derbies, apart from finals footy, are the ones you want to play in because they’re big games and it means so much to WA and obviously the clubs that are involved.

“If there’s any crowd there, any noise, it’s going to be good. Hopefully we can get as many there as we can.”

With Fremantle only one win outside the eight, and West Coast fighting to retain seventh position, Duggan said they’ll attempt to hone in on the momentum behind an electric four-goal finish to the Melbourne clash on Monday night.

“Something that we’ve recognised over the year, obviously our big losses and our big swings in momentum that don’t go our way, we found quite hard to stop,” Duggan said.

“But if we produced something like that in the last 15 minutes then the lightbulb suddenly appears, there it is.

“In think in terms of the momentum throughout the game and the boys just cracking in is a stark contrast to what we looked like the week before.

“That shows the hunger’s still there, and the boys are trying to crack into gear, because we’ve got to win these next two to make sure of it.

“There’s no better opportunity than these last two games to solidify a spot in the finals for us.”