Fremantle Dockers defender Brennan Cox is flying blind after never playing on West Coast's young key forwards
The Eagles have named Jobe Shanahan and Archer Reid as their main key forwards to take on the Dockers, which is vastly different to what Cox has usually experienced in derbies when Oscar Allen, Jake Waterman, Jack Darling and Josh Kennedy were the club's obvious focal points.
Shanahan is making his derby debut in his fifth AFL game while Reid has come back into the team for the first time since round 13 and will be playing his 12th match.
Cox usually has detailed knowledge of his opponent which has been built up through repeated clashes. He said Saturday would pose a totally different type of challenge.
'I haven't played on any of their tall forwards so I'll watch a bit of vision and see what their little tricks are and what they like to do. It'll be interesting,' he said.
'You obviously do learn a bit (during games). Whoever you play on you always keep a little memory of how they went about it, what they didn't like and what they tried to do. It'll be new but it'll be exciting. I'm looking forward to it.'
Cox has already had to make plenty of adjustments this season after moving to full-back when captain Alex Pearce's leg injury forced him out of the team.
The South Australian has been influential as an intercept marker during his career, but assistant coach Jade Rawlings asked Cox to switch his focus to locking down on the opposition's most damaging key forward.
'It can be a bit nerve-racking playing closer to goal but I enjoy the challenge of coming up on the best forwards in the game and playing deeper. You hope there's heaps of pressure on the ball and they don't get too many looks,' Cox said.
'I'm happy with how I've played. It's been a bit different to other years where we've had Pearcey playing and i was on the second key forward. With him going down and since Twig (Rawlings) came in, he's trusted me with those key roles.
'I wasn't playing with a whole lot of body but since he's come in I've tried to play with more body and make it a really hard day for the forward. Now that I've adjusted to that I'm trying to find the balance between running, jumping and spoiling.'
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