If there's a road venue where West Coast can execute a full-ground defensive pressing game it's in a potential blockbuster at Simonds Stadium in Geelong, according to Cats coach Chris Scott.
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Scott is bracing his Cats for far less freedom than they generated with a whopping 25 marks inside the forward 50m arc in a 20-goal massacre of Gold Coast at Geelong's hallowed home turf on Saturday.
Despite West Coast facing another bogey ground on the road, where they have a shocking overall record, the Cats boss predicts the Eagles will cope with the dimensions and occasion of the biggest game of the AFL Mother's Day weekend round.
Geelong's cherished home is long and narrow at 170 metres and a tight 117 metres, not dissimilar to the Eagles' surface at Subiaco, which is slightly bigger at 175 metres and 122 metres wide.
West Coast is also likely to swing classy follower Elliot Yeo straight back into the midfield after he missed Sunday's comfortable win over Collingwood in Perth with a bout of tonsillitis.
Yeo, 22, has been taking on significant on-ball match-ups so far this season, with assignments on the likes of Fremantle gun Nat Fyfe and Richmond's Dustin Martin and will be a contender to run with Cats gun Patrick Dangerfield on Saturday.
Important defender Jeremy McGovern is another Eagle on medical watch in his recovery from a strained right ankle.
The Cats and Eagles have established reputations to press heavily from their backline and midfield with intentions for heavy penetration into scoring zones, generating repeat chances for powerhouse key forwards.
Eagles coach Adam Simpson conceded in his weekly Monday night interview with Radio 6PR that winning away from home was a mounting problem in his longer range finals and premiership plan.
The relentlessly attacking Cats generated 62 inside 50s in smashing the Suns to stretch out to 63 wins from their last 69 home games over the past decade.
Scott doesn't expect anywhere near a similar degree of freedom to run and penetrate forward even with the blistering form of Brownlow Medal fancies Dangerfield and Joel Selwood leading the Cats' midfield.
"It would be nice if that could happen every week," he said.
"But that would be completely unrealistic with the way West Coast defend."
West Coast is heading back to an unwanted branding of "flat track bullies" with their imposing home ground record, but still highly shaky on the road against finals favourites.
Simpson bristles at reminders of his side's imposing home capabilities and raging doubts to topple other flag contenders when on interstate engagements.
Since launching his Eagles coaching stint in 2014 he has only engineered one road win over a top-eight side of the time, with a 20-point victory over an eighth-placed Richmond at the MCG in round 12 last June.
Simpson revealed that he was implementing refined operations in a bid to overcome his outfit's travel sickness, but only with minor alterations.
He said any revised approaches would not change his unit's ultimate playing style.
"It's certainly hard to win interstate and I think teams that come over here [Perth] have the same problem," Simpson said.
"It's across the world. In any sport your home ground is an advantage.
"Winning away from home is difficult and we're exploring different things without trying to re-invent the wheel.
"Essentially we just want to play our brand and play our way."
The Eagles boss was quick to point to what has been a winning formula since taking the reins in 2014 can be effective away from Perth.
West Coast is the sixth heaviest scoring unit at around 101 points a week and the fourth tightest defensive operation conceding about 78 points an outing, while the Cats are fourth best at scoring with almost 111 points scored and second tightest defence, leaking only 63 points per game.
Simpson says home ground advantage is becoming a more significant factor in deciding outcomes this season with a more even competition.
Early trending home-away losses on the road confirm mounting travelling woes with only a 27 percent winning ratio from 35 interstate visitors.
"If you looked at every club and what their form is like away from home I don't think you'd get too many stats that are too dissimilar," he said.
"How many teams have won away from home this year against top four sides, probably not too many.
"I can't shy away from it and we're not shying away from it.
"We've got to get better [away] and we're trying to do it this week."
West Coast has not won in Geelong since 2006 when it miraculously stormed home from 54 points behind 18 minutes into the third term and won by three points.
They have lost their last four treks to Simonds with just eight victories from 23 trips overall in 30 years.
Last season's runners-up have also now not won outside of Perth since round 16 last year, with losses already this season to Hawthorn at the MCG by 46 points in round two and by more than six goals to Sydney at the SCG a fortnight ago.
