Brisbane dual premiership coach Chris Fagan has conceded he’s found himself “scrambling” to do his homework on a nearly unrecognisable West Coast team from their last meeting.

The Eagles and Lions have not played since round two of last season — an incredible 483 days between contests.

In that time, West Coast have blooded 19 players, 10 of which turned out for the side in last week’s 16-point defeat to the Western Bulldogs as they continue to overhaul their list.

So it is little wonder Fagan is still trying to figure out who he has to worry about when they step out at Optus Stadium on Saturday night.

“I started looking at West Coast and realised that the team that played their last game, there were 16 players who played here (in Brisbane) early last year that aren’t playing in the team now. So they’ve changed quite dramatically from what we’re accustomed to,” he said.

“I found myself scrambling, watching vision, looking at their players and trying to get an understanding of what their strengths and vulnerabilities are.

“Our job is to make sure our players are really well prepared to play against a team that has been really competitive for a fair part of the year.

“They had a great win against the Giants over there a few weeks back (round 10), and we played the Giants the next week, and they gave us a clean-up.

“Even when we played them last year, we struggled all day. We were behind still at three-quarter time and kicked four or five goals in the last quarter to win.

“They at their home ground are a real challenge. They pushed the Dogs on the weekend.”

There will be one familiar face for Fagan and his Lions on the other side in dual premiership defender Brandon Starcevich, who will come up against his former side for the first time since he returned home in last year’s trade period.

Starcevich played 132 games for the Lions in eight seasons before the East Perth product departed to land in the Eagles’ nest.

“I haven’t given it a great deal of thought. We have massive respect for Starce and the role that he played in our premierships. And the good bloke that he is,” Fagan said.

“He’s a real competitor though, and our blokes will be aware of that. And I think our blokes will be really competitive back the other way.

“We’ll be looking forward to that opportunity. It’s just good to see him back playing after missing a lot of the year with injury.

Fagan joked he wanted to see Starcevich go up against star forward Cam Rayner in what would be “a bit of fun”.

“It could be any of those small forwards. Charlie (Cameron) or Kai (Lohmann) or it could even be Cam Rayner,” he said.

“Imagine those two bulls going at each other? That’d be a bit of fun. That’s the one I hope for.”

West Coast’s club debutants since they last played Brisbane

• Sandy Brock
• Hamish Davis
• Tom Gross
• Bo Allan
• Tom McCarthy
• Jobe Shanahan
• Malakai Champion
• Jacob Newton
• Lucca Grego
• Cooper Duff-Tytler
• Willem Duursma
• Josh Lindsay
• Milan Murdock
• Deven Robertson
• Tylar Young
• Harry Schoenberg
• Brandon Starcevich
• Marcus Herbert
• Oliver Francou