West Coast ruckman Dean Cox admits he and most of his teammates will be nervous when they run out to face Collingwood in Saturday's AFL qualifying final at the MCG.

The Eagles are likely to field 10 finals debutants against the battle-hardened Magpies, who will be entering their sixth-straight finals campaign.

Cox has featured in five finals series himself, including two grand finals and one premiership, but the 224-game veteran said West Coast's young guns won't be the only ones with butterflies in their stomach come Saturday.

"I think all players will be nervous," Cox said.

"Certainly at 30 I'll still be a little bit nervous running out onto the ground.

"The heat's on both sides. We go over there to win the game of footy and host a prelim here (in Perth).

"There's pressure.

"We want to go over there and try to win this game of football and give ourselves the best possible chance to play in a grand final and win a premiership.

"Favouritism - at the end of the day it doesn't really matter. That's what people want to bet on. That's why they give odds.

"We've put ourselves in a good position to have a good crack at it."

West Coast - wooden spooners last year - could exit the finals in straight sets and still rightly regard the season as a runaway success.

But Cox said that wouldn't cut it with the success-starved group.

"I think the players are aware that just because we finished top-four, we are not guaranteed to improve and win more games next year," Cox said.

"You've certainly got to make the most of the situation you're in, and that's what we're going to do.

"We go in against Collingwood confident that if we play our best footy, we can knock them off.

"We took it up to Collingwood for periods when we played them in Melbourne (in round 10), and we beat Geelong here. We took care of Carlton away, and we pushed Hawthorn down in Launceston as well.

"So our best isn't far away from matching it with the top sides. We're not here just to make up the numbers."

Cox, who is tipped to earn his fifth All-Australian guernsey after a standout season, and Nic Naitanui are expected to have a significant advantage over Collingwood's out-of-form ruck pairing of Darren Jolly and Cameron Wood.

Naitanui has flourished into arguably the best tap-to-advantage ruckman in the competition this season, and Cox said he couldn't help but admire the 21-year-old's freakish talents.

"It's been fun ... trying to play my role but also fast-tracking his development," Cox said.

"He keeps me on my toes. I try to pass on as much information and learn things off him as well.

"Certainly his follow-up and second and third efforts are as good as I've seen on a ruckman, so it's something I'm going to try to implement."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP