What West Coast Eagles learnt from pre-season game at Hands Oval ahead of first-ever Bunbury AFL fixture

West Coast will have to navigate a unique factor if they are to triumph in their historic South West clash against North Melbourne: The Bunbury breeze. Both clubs got an insight into conditions at Hands Oval back in March, where the Eagles scrapped out a pre-season win against the Kangaroos ahead of the two clubs’ meeting there for premiership points on Sunday. On that day, 15 of the game’s 20 goals were kicked to the north-east end of the ground, with the venue unprotected from the afternoon south-west breeze whipping across from nearby Geographe Bay. That score tally included a bomb from Liam Baker from the edge of the centre square that sailed into the front rows of the stands, with the 60m major helping seal the game for the Eagles as they came home with the wind advantage in the final term. West Coast midfield coach Jarrad Schofield said the club would look to draw on its experience with handling the breeze that day as an extra challenge compared to playing in the protected confines of Optus Stadium as they prepare for the unusual task of playing as the ‘away’ team in their own state against the Roos. “We’ll go down the day before and treat it like an away game,” Schofield said on TAB Radio. “What we learnt is that it’s actually quite windy down there. The wind just sort of goes down the middle of the ground, and assists one end. “We found that challenging in the first quarter when we played there last time... they were our learnings and the conditions you’ve got to adapt to.” In four South West Football League matches at Hands Oval this season, the north-east end of the ground has accounted for 49 goals, with 31 kicked at the other end. Julian Burgess, the league coach of the venue’s SWFL tenant club South Bunbury, said whether his side was kicking with or against the wind played a significant role in how they set up. “It normally heads down towards the scoreboard, you can get bogged down in that corner quite often,” he said. “It has changed slightly since the new stand has come into play, obviously it depends how strong the winds are on the day as well. “If we’re going down that way, we try and play on the grandstand side as much as we can so we can attack a bit freer towards goals. “If we’re going against it, it depends on where the game’s at. If we’re not going so well, we’ll go out to that side, but if we’re going OK, we’ll pretty well try and go down the middle.” Despite the ground lacking cover from the wind many AFL footballers would be accustomed to, Burgess said he was confident the conditions would not wreak too much havoc on the day. “The AFL footballers will know how much to allow, that’s what it comes down to,” he said. “Good footballers know how to allow for the wind. They’ll get out there early enough and have a kick around. “Hopefully it’s not blowing a gale and they should be okay.” Sunday’s forecast predicts light winds with a 10 per cent chance of rain in Bunbury, in what will be the first-ever WA game for AFL premiership points to be held outside of Perth. As they prepare to face All-Australian contender Tristan Xerri, who leads North Melbourne’s midfield set-up, Schofield said the Eagles’ past two matches against third-placed Adelaide and fifth-placed Geelong had sharpened the club’s focus on emphasising precision and work rate in the engine room. “What we’ve noticed with the good teams is, fundamentally, by hand and by foot and on ground balls... they’re super clean and they execute their skill,” he said. “The core of the AFL game starts at the contest. When you’re strong in and around the contest, and you’ve got players who are all sharing the load and not relying on too few - that probably separates the top teams versus the bottom half of the competition.” The Kangaroos are expected to fly in to Busselton on Friday and make the short trip north ahead of their first game as the ‘home’ side in Bunbury, before remaining in WA for an Optus Stadium clash against Fremantle the following weekend.