The West Coast Eagles have been building their form over the last few weeks.
Adam Simpson’s side has endured a tough 2022 campaign to date having been hijacked by COVID and injuries, but appear to now be back on track.
The return of some key personnel has coincided with improved performances in the last three weeks, pushing Geelong all the way in Round 14, beating Essendon in Round 15 and making life difficult for Richmond on Sunday.
Next on the agenda is fifth-placed Carlton at Optus Stadium this Sunday.
As a result of their uptick, and referencing Matthew Pavlich’s declaration that “they will beat Carlton”, SEN WA Breakfast’s Scott Cummings suggested to Andrew Gaff - “You’re certainly going the right path to knock off Carlton this week.”
To which the Eagles winger replied: “Yeah, we are.
“We know Carlton are going to come out pretty hard after their loss to the Saints on Friday night.
“They’ll have nine days between the Friday and Sunday this week, which is pretty decent.
“They’ve got good players all over the park. A lot of these guys are young and middle-aged guys in their career that have a really promising future as well.”
Gaff acknowledges that the West Coast defence will have their work cut out for them given the presence of Blues forwards Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay.
He sees it as a great challenge for the likes of Rhett Bazzo, who did a good job on Jack Riewoldt in the Tigers loss.
The two-time All-Australian also touched on the quality of Carlton’s midfielders, but insists the Eagles will be a difficult proposition for the travelling Blues.
“Curnow and McKay have probably been the two standout key forwards for the whole comp. What a great opportunity for Rhett (Bazzo) and all the guys down there,” he added.
“And in the midfield with (Patrick) Cripps and (Sam) Walsh and (George) Hewett and all those guys.
“They’re going to be tough to beat, no doubt, but if we continue that trajectory that we’ve built the last three or four weeks, we feel like we’re going to be hard to beat as well.
“I think it will be a good game on Sunday afternoon.”
The Eagles were buoyed by the return of gun ruckman Nic Naitanui last weekend, and he looked fairly sharp with 19 disposals and 26 hit-outs.
It is the presence of players like him that will help the Eagles in the last two months of the season.
“You always walk a bit taller with Nic out there,” Gaff said.
“He has that ability to balance between tapping it down guys’ throats, but when he had out-bodied (Toby) Nankervis, he started grabbing it and just booting it long into the forward line.
“He was really good and kicked a really nice goal on the left.
“You can come back from injury and take a little bit of time to get his fitness and get his football craft back to what it normally is.
“I thought he was really good on the weekend. It gives him and it gives us a lot of confidence going forward against some really good teams coming up.”
Veteran forward Josh Kennedy was managed against the Tigers, however, he is expected to return for the Carlton clash. West Coast will be without Elliot Yeo after he suffered a hamstring injury.
The Eagles sit second bottom on the ladder with a 2-13 record but are being given a fair chance of knocking off the Blues at home in Round 17.