WEST COAST is on track to break new ground if it can win this year's premiership while continuing to blood debutants.

The Eagles will hand their first-round pick from last year, Jarrod Brander, his first game for the club in Friday night's clash with Sydney. It makes the key position player the seventh Eagle to play his first AFL game this year.

It is a remarkable feat given the club's standing on top of the ladder after winning their past 10 games following their round one loss to the Swans.

Should the Eagles go on with their brilliant start to the season and take out their fourth AFL flag, they would have broken the recent trend for the number of debuts in a club's premiership season.

Of the past 10 premiers, Hawthorn had the most debutants in their premiership season of 2014 when they had seven first-gamers.

But that was an outlier, with an average of four debutants per premiership side over the past decade.

No premiership team has had more than seven debutants in its premiership season since Carlton in 1987, who had eight.

The Eagles' list of debutants this season have all had their say on the side's fortunes, with the club's recruiting central to its rise up the ladder this season, and its batch of younger players making an immediate impact at the top level.

West Coast handed debuts to Liam Ryan, Daniel Venables and Jake Waterman in round one, and has since given opportunities to first-gamers Jack Petruccelle, Willie Rioli and Brayden Ainsworth before Brander's inclusion this week.

Debutants in premiership seasons
2017: Richmond – 5
2016: Western Bulldogs – 4
2015: Hawthorn – 2
2014: Hawthorn – 7
2013: Hawthorn – 5
2012: Sydney – 2
2011: Geelong – 5
2010: Collingwood – 1
2009: Geelong – 4
2008: Hawthorn – 5

*Statistics supplied by AFL statistician Cam Sinclair