West Coast coach John Worsfold believes the defensive strategies used to quell the Jonathan Brown-Daniel Bradshaw combo will also work to limit the Brown-Brendan Fevola double act.

The Lions traded heavily to acquire the services of Fevola but in the process lost loyal servant Bradshaw, who booted 58 goals last season and 496 in total for Brisbane.

Brown and Fevola will play their first AFL match together in Saturday night's clash with the Eagles at the Gabba.

But while Brisbane fans are drooling about the Brown-Fevola potential, Worsfold believed the Brown-Bradshaw combination was just as potent.

"Their set-up is very similar," Worsfold said on Thursday.

"Bradshaw was a very good leading forward so there's not much to change (in our defensive strategies)."

While Eagles skipper Darren Glass is certain to get one of the two key forwards, Eric Mackenzie, Mitch Brown and Brett Jones could all spend stints on the other.

Six players will make their debut for the Lions but five of them already have AFL experience in Fevola (Carlton), Brent Staker (West Coast), Andrew Raines (Richmond), Amon Buchanan (Sydney) and Matt Maguire (St Kilda).

Lions midfielder Todd Banfield, selected with pick No.41 in the 2008 national draft, will make his AFL debut.

And the Eagles will also blood new talent in the form of promising midfielder Luke Shuey, while Beau Waters will end 21 months of injury woes with a return to the elite level.

Shuey, snared with pick No.18 in the 2008 national draft, failed to notch a senior game last year after being cut down by a series of groin injuries and then a fractured leg.

The 19-year-old has been a star of the Eagles' pre-season campaign and Worsfold said the 183cm on-baller deserved his call-up.

"The kid's been very focused on doing everything right, focused on making sure that during his long period out of the game he did everything right so that when the chance came for him to play again he would be fit and ready to go," Worsfold said.

"The fact that it's round one and he's broken into the AFL side is a great boost for him."

Waters has recovered from the elbow injury that threatened to prematurely end his career and will play his first AFL match since round 10, 2008.

"When he started playing in the pre-season he was just excited to be pulling on the boots and getting nervous about a game again," Worsfold said.

"So it's great to see him back playing footy."

The Eagles haven't played finals football since 2007 but Worsfold is confident his fledgling team had the ability to make a mark this season.

"I think our depth now is at the point where there's players missing out that have played good AFL footy in the past whereas 12 months ago players that were missing out were pretty much rookies that hadn't played much," he said.

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