"He's certainly in the mix. He hasn't played for us, but I don't think that's too much of a disadvantage because we believe we know what he can offer us. If we think that's what we need going into this game and he's the player to give it to us, then he'll play, because he is in good enough form, and he's done enough work."

"We are confident, the only thing he hasn't done is kick on his right leg over really long distances. He has really got to be able to run flat out, which he has been doing for over a week now so it is all looking good."

"A couple of them looked a little bit uncertain, but I guess you will never know until 40 minutes before the game whether their 22 is as selected."

"We are probably going to be a little bit undersized. They will play a few talls up there, which may stretch us, but we all play a bit taller than what we are, so it is not a huge concern for us."

"It's round one. Every team is in the same boat. They are playing their strongest side, we are playing our strongest side. You just never know what is going to happen. You can't go on form from the last four games in the practice matches, everything is totally different now."

"The last three years have been disappointing. Obviously you want to play finals as much as you can. We've given the young guys experience. They're up to around 50 games now and it's time. This is our chance to really have a go at it."

"It's not Mission Impossible, you can win over there. Eagles in Perth has always been the most difficult game in football - maybe Geelong in Geelong may have overtaken that lately."

"We've been a bit locked into our structure. While we've had a structure that has worked well at times it's been a little bit too predictable. We want to be less predictable."