HIS Eagles side of 2008 may have no chance of beating Geelong this weekend, but West Coast coach John Worsfold says he would back his premiership team of 2006 against the current Cats juggernaut.

Even the ever-focused Worsfold could afford a wry smile when asked whether his team could beat Geelong at Skilled Stadium on Saturday - not surprising given the 135-point humiliation by the Cats at Subiaco in round 13.

But Worsfold sparked an interesting debate by saying he believed the Eagles of 2006, including the likes of Ben Cousins, Chris Judd, Daniel Chick and Daniel Kerr, would have given the reigning premiers a classic contest.

"We can (win this weekend) - but it would be a big win if we could do it. All we can guarantee is that we will give it everything, not just count the minutes in the game until the end of the season," Worsfold said.

"The expectation is probably not that we are a great chance to win but that anything could happen.

"We do not have our 2006 premiership side out there running around the weekend - if that was the case, I would back us in."

The size of the Eagles' task in their last game of the season was put into even sharper focus by Geelong coach Mark Thompson's comments after their workmanlike win against North Melbourne last weekend.

"West Coast are going to come over and play here and I know they haven't got much of a team, but we want to give them the hardest game that they've ever had in their life," Thompson said.

"We just want to play the kind of footy we play on a consistent basis and not fall into the trap of playing lazy football that is uncaring and dishonest.

"I don't like getting into bad habits and I think that's one of the real things that we've tried to stress upon the guys, that we just want to play this sort of footy and on a consistent basis and not fall into the trap of just playing lazy performances.

"Definitely not the week before the finals you wouldn't want to do it."

Worsfold said he thought that type of talk was more directed at the Geelong players than his - and he was interested to see how their opponents would deal with a game that no-one expected them to lose.

"We are going to lap that up, and again it is a great learning environment for a lot of our players, a great learning environment for me," Worsfold said

"Mark Thompson has made a statement that is really directed at the Geelong players more than us. They are going through a lot of different emotions this week

"I am interested to sit back to see how he deals with that."

As well as dealing with the massive task on the weekend, the Eagles have also been left with another gap in the backrooms, after the announcement that long time servant Tim Gepp has resigned.

Chairman of the match committee, Gepp is joining a mobile phone social networking company - a far cry from the controversies he has been involved with in the Eagles nest in recent years.