Sydney coach Dean Cox impressed by West Coast’s suite of young talls ahead of Swans’ clash with Eagles in WA

If there’s one man who’s qualified to talk about West Coast’s developing 200cm youngsters, it’s the Eagles’ greatest-ever 200cm player.

But while Dean Cox is impressed by what he’s seeing at his old club, he’s plotting their downfall for Saturday night when he looks to keep Sydney’s remarkable record at Optus Stadium rolling.

Cox and the Swans are looking to douse the enthusiasm around the young Eagles when the pair of 2-1 sides clash, with the second-year coach focusing on making life harder for West Coast’s emerging suite of forward options.

“They’ve got an identity, they’re playing well, and their young kids are standing up in pressure moments,” Cox said of the Eagles on SEN.

“When you talk about (Archer) Reid being 203 (centimetres), Cooper (Duff-Tytler) 200, obviously (Jobe) Shanahan… the ability (to provide) aerial stuff has been really impressive for some young kids.

“We’ve spoken a lot about that this week. I think a lot of it is their entries – they score really efficiently once they get in there, and that’s without putting (Jake) Waterman into that sentence as well.

“They’re really dangerous ahead of the ball and that’s something we’ve got to be aware of.”

Cox said he was also mindful of West Coast’s significant improvement in the midfield, notwithstanding the loss of his former Eagles teammate Elliot Yeo (groin) and off-season recruit Deven Robertson (suspension) for Saturday’s game.

“Their pressure and tackling has been phenomenal. I think they’re the No.1 tackling team, their pressure, their contested possession has been a dramatic improvement,” Cox said.

“Loose ball gets – they’ve gone from 15th to first. So they’re getting over and outnumbering really well, and then using that outnumber. We need to be aware of that and show our players how we try to combat that.”

Sydney start firm favourites on Saturday as they shoot for their seventh consecutive win at Optus Stadium, which would snap a tie with Melbourne for the outright longest by a non-WA club in the young history of the venue.

The Swans are in the midst of a 16-day break between games amid their round three bye, giving them time to take stock of a loss to Hawthorn that came off the back of a double injury blow for star duo Errol Gulden and Isaac Heeney.

Heeney was set to be tested at the club’s main training on Wednesday ahead of the team’s trip to WA on Thursday, but Cox was confident of him being available.

“He’s done everything through last week and over the weekend. He’s got one more session. Hopefully he gets through that and he’ll be on the plane,” Cox said.