The West Coast players and tactics that have jumped out at Eagles recruit Owies

West Coast recruit Matt Owies is finding his feet in Perth after beginning his first pre-season with the Eagles.

The small forward joined the club from Carlton during the trade period and the 27-year-old will hope to bring some winning experience to a side that’s struggled in recent campaigns.

While on-field results haven’t been ideal for the Eagles across the last three seasons, Owies has been impressed by the club’s youngsters in the first few weeks of pre-season, with big-bodied midfielder Reuben Ginbey standing out for his running capability.

“To be honest, there's probably someone jumping out every single session that's different,” Owies told SEN WA The Run Home.

“I know in my first session we did a lot of running and Reuben (Ginbey) was killing that, which for a big lad was pretty impressive to see.

“Once you get into the little tackling drills and other drills here and there's people jumping out all over the page.

“I think that's what happens when you have a young group. The boys have their one-woods, and they definitely bring that with their intensity around the ball.”

Owies arrived at the club at the same time as new coach Andrew McQualter, who most recently served as an assistant at Melbourne but spent 10 years at Richmond prior to that including coaching the Tigers on an interim basis for 13 games in 2023.

With McQualter expected to bring a similar fast game style to Perth that Damien Hardwick employed at Richmond, Owies is excited to play in a system that relies on small forwards to get plenty of footy as well as hit the scoreboard.

“That was a massive draw card for me coming over here to play in the game style that Mini is wanting to play,” Owies said.

“It’s that fast ball movement with a reliance on small forwards to be a big part of that game plan, both on offence and defence.

“The training drills are very intense around the ball and fighting forward is a major thing that we're going after.

“That's music to my ears as a forward, I'm sure Jake Waterman and Oscar Allen are singing the same praises.

“We'll see how that goes over the year, but it's definitely going to be an exciting brand of football.”

Owies will hope to make his West Coast debut when the Eagles host Gold Coast at Optus Stadium on March 16.

Photo: @WestCoastEagles Twitter