ADELAIDE Oval has been a happy hunting ground for West Coast and star defender Jeremy McGovern says the Eagles don't fear playing a do-or-die final on Port Adelaide's home deck.
The cards seemingly fell in the Eagles' favour after they scraped into finals with an emotion-charged 29-point victory over Adelaide last Sunday.
By leapfrogging Melbourne and finishing eighth, they booked an elimination final trip to face the Power, who they have beaten in all three clashes at Adelaide Oval.
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Port's home ground is only four metres wider than the narrow confines of Domain Stadium and has suited West Coast under coach Adam Simpson, with the club boasting an overall 5-1 record at the venue.
"Not many other ovals hold any fears but if you're going by our form of late playing over there we play pretty well," McGovern told AFL.com.au.
"We don't have to travel as far, it's only a couple of hours' flight, which is nice and easy for us.
"The last few times we've been there we've played some of our better footy, so hopefully we can do that again."
West Coast and Port have faced off twice this season, with both sides winning away from home.
Despite being smashed in the inside 50s count (68-39), the Eagles secured a gritty 10-point interstate triumph in round seven when the club's form on the road was under the microscope.
"As a backline, we probably stood up and played our role," McGovern said.
"There's no reason we couldn't do it again, but we don't want to put ourselves in that position again.
"That's one of the key stats you look at, you don't really want to be coming out most games losing that."
McGovern, who could earn back-to-back All Australian selections on Wednesday night, insists he will be fine to face the Power after going off the ground injured against the Crows.
The intercept marking star left the field clutching his left shoulder during the second term but returned and took 10 marks – including four contested.
"I've had problems with that shoulder in the past, and I just re-aggravated a few things," he said.
"But I played the game out, so I was fine."
McGovern rated West Coast's victory over the Crows as the club's best four-quarter performance in a season when late fadeouts nearly cost the Eagles a finals berth.
"I think we've played better in patches, but for four quarters that's definitely the best we've played," McGovern said.
"We felt if we could do that we could match it with most teams.
"Obviously now when you're in it (finals), you want to win it. We've got a few past finals we haven't done too well in.
"It's not redemption or anything like that, it's a new year, but that will be in the back of boys' minds who played in those finals to make sure that doesn't happen again.
"That's the exciting part, not knowing how far you can go. We've scraped in and we've got a chance to win it now."
With McGovern's focus on September football, he isn't giving much thought to his own future.
The 25-year-old, whose younger brother Mitch this week re-signed with Adelaide for three years, still has another season to run on his contract.
But West Coast will want to lock away one of their leaders, who has taken the most intercept marks in the competition the past two seasons and shapes a key plank in the Eagles' future as they transition towards youth.
"I'm just playing footy and I'm at the club until next year," McGovern said.
"I'm sure my manager has had a chat to the club about it, which he'll probably follow up at the end of the year for me.
"I'm hoping I'm going to be at the club for a while after this but right now we've got bigger fish to fry."
