West Coast and Port Adelaide settled their final teams for the round 13 Eagles game at Optus Stadium on Saturday night, with Brandon Starcevich set to make his debut for the Eagles at 6.15pm AWST. He came into the side alongside Cooper Duff-Tytler, while Josh Lindsay and Jack Williams were omitted.
The match was the sole night fixture on Saturday, and it arrived with West Coast carrying momentum from two straight home wins. The Eagles had beaten Port Adelaide earlier in the year, as well as North Melbourne, and then used a bye after their back-to-back games at Optus Stadium to reset before this latest test.
Starcevich’s inclusion was the headline change for a West Coast side that has been improving steadily in recent weeks, with its previous home win described as a dominant performance over Essendon. For a club still working through a rebuild, naming a debutant in a home match that followed consecutive victories gave Saturday night a different feel from the start.
Port Adelaide returned three players in Lachie Jones, Tom Cochrane and Jackson Mead, while Kane Farrell, Tom Anastasopoulos and Jack Watkins made way. The reshuffle came after four consecutive losses before the bye, a run that left little room for error even after the break. Port had been competitive against top sides, but it needed wins against teams like West Coast to keep any realistic chance of pushing toward a wildcard place alive.
That is what made the final team sheets matter beyond the usual selection news. West Coast had found a little rhythm at home, and Port Adelaide had just come back from a pause with its season under pressure. The opening bounce at Optus Stadium would tell whether the Eagles could keep building, or whether Port could stop the slide that has put its campaign on the edge.
For readers following the Eagles game, the selections also tied directly into the broader round 13 picture, including Essendon’s five changes for its own Optus Stadium clash. By the time the teams ran out at 6.15pm AWST, the story was no longer about who had been left out. It was about whether the changes would hold up under lights.
