West Coast young gun Reuben Ginbey says his team will look to keep discovering its edgier side in the back end of the season with interim coach Jarrad Schofield.
Schofield snagged his first win as senior AFL coach last Friday night in a 10-point thriller against the Gold Coast Suns at Optus Stadium.
The Suns took a nine-point lead into the final quarter, however a youthful Eagles side brought the fight to the away side, keeping them in the game, with two late goals from Liam Duggan and Jamie Cripps to brought them home.
Speaking on SportFM ahead of this week’s clash against North Melbourne, Ginbey says West Coast will be looking to maintain the harder edge they showed on Friday night again.
“Every coach brings in a different rev up or aspect of what you’re going after. I think Schoey does that, is that bit more physical, a bit more harder edged,” he said.
“The training these days you can’t get quite as physical with your teammates week to week, especially back end of the season, because we’re recovering, but you can just still bring that harder edge in different things.
“That’s your intensity with the ball or your skills or if its time to be physical then its time to be physical.
“Now we’re finding that good balance. So hopefully we can snag a few more wins with that harder edge we’ve been playing with over the last month.”
Ginbey has been one player who has taken an enormous leap in the last month after transitioning into a half back role and returning to his WAFL roots.
Friday night marked a significant milestone for the Dunsborough product as he delivered a career best performance in the backline – finishing with 22 disposals, eight intercepts and five marks.
While Ginbey says he feels more comfortable in defence, Ginbey isn’t ruling out a return to the midfield down the line.
“In my first one and a half seasons, I was playing in the midfield and I wasn’t quite having the impact I would like to have had,” he said.
“I thought I’d be developed a bit quicker in terms of getting the ball and being a bit more damaging and then my first month in the backline I’ve looked like a better player and it just feels a bit more natural to me at the moment.
“I think one day I’ll develop into a midfielder, but at the moment I’m pretty happy in the backline, it just feels a bit more natural and I feel I can impact the game defensively and offensively.”
West Coast will travel to Hobart this weekend to take on North Melbourne and take their first win on the road this season.
While there is plenty of enthusiasm around the club coming off the win, Ginbey says they aren’t getting ahead of themselves.
“The week’s definitely better when you’re coming from a win but we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves,” he said.
“We’re going down to Hobart tomorrow. WA Teams don’t normally play there, but we’re definitely trying to get the win down there against North as well.”.
IMAGE: Fox Sports