As a kid David Swallow used to watch West Coast through blue and gold-coloured eyes, but the Gold Coast SUNS midfielder will have his sights firmly fixed on winning the contested football this Saturday when he takes on the team he supported as a youngster at Patersons Stadium.

The 21-year-old still keeps tabs on the Eagles’ progress, and admits he’s a little surprised at the team’s struggles over the past two months.

“I’ve watched a little bit of them. I obviously followed them as a kid, so I try to keep an eye on them,” Swallow said.

“They had a great start to the year, but I guess (they’ve) been a bit up and down since then.

“They’ve got some superstars of the comp. I guess we’re going to have to be pretty competitive against them, especially through the middle. That’s probably where the game will be won, in the midfield battle.”

Swallow played a handful of games as a teenager at Patersons Stadium, but he is yet to taste victory there at AFL level.

SUNS coach Guy McKenna made a point of talking to his playing group about the dimensions of the ground at the team’s final training run on Friday morning, which are markedly different to Metricon Stadium.

"We just spoke about the length of the ground, Metricon is 165m, Patersons is 175m," McKenna said.

"Certainly there's plenty of space, and again if you let West Coast off the chain they'll expose you."

Swallow said the long and skinny ground was “quite daunting” when you look at it pre-match.

“It’s obviously not as wide as most grounds,” Swallow said.

“Definitely the length you notice; there’s a lot more space between the centre square and the 50.

“I guess when you’re out there, though, once the ball’s there, you don’t really notice it, but before the game when you’re looking around it’s quite daunting.

“Hopefully we can win the battle inside against their mids and get it on the outside to the likes of Sekko (Alex Sexton) and Hally (Aaron Hall).”