West Coast’s move to send Brady Hough into the midfield has Melbourne left with a Kysaiah Pickett problem

West Coast have a Kysaiah Pickett problem. The Eagles are trialling their best small defender, Brady Hough, in the midfield ahead of a match-up with the gun Melbourne forward. And coach Andrew McQualter has confirmed they will stick with the Hough experiment at Optus Stadium on Saturday night, despite his excellent record shutting down the game’s best small forwards. It leaves McQualter searching for a defender that can shut down Pickett, who has kicked eight goals in his past three games. The 23-year-old is playing a mid-forward role that has proven almost impossible to defend. He had 24 disposals and kicked five goals against Fremantle just a fortnight ago. The Eagles have used Hough against Pickett in both of their meetings last year. Pickett was held to 18 disposals and two goals across 109 minutes directly opposed to Hough. West Coast have never held Pickett goalless from six attempts. He averages 1.8 goals per game against the Eagles, his fourth-highest against any club. Premiership defender Tom Cole, new recruit Liam Baker, debutant Bo Allan and co-captain Liam Duggan are among McQualter’s options on Saturday night. None of them have team spent significant time on the mercurial forward for the Eagles. Hough attended a career-high 26 centre bounces in the 50-point defeat to Hawthorn on Sunday and revealed this week he had pitched the midfield shift to coaches. Last season he emerged as one of the league’s top stoppers, completing significant shut-down jobs on the likes of Willie Rioli, Toby Greene and Bobby Hill. “We know how good a defender Houghy is, for sure,” McQualter said. “We are pretty keen to perservere with him through the midfield. We think he can become an A-grade midfielder, I think he had one crack at it for the first week and we’d be pretty keen to pursue that at the moment.” Reuben Ginbey is the Eagles defender with the most goals kicked on him in direct match-ups this season. Ginbey has conceded 15 goals, while Hough and Duggan have each had nine kicked on them, Baker and Cole five and makeshift backman Ryan Maric just one. Hough may not escape Pickett though, with the premiership star spending time at centre bounces before exploding forward to have an impact. “He’s fast, he’s very fast. And he moves really quick laterally so he’s hard to get you hands on him,” Hough said earlier in the week. “I’m sure I will find myself on him at some stage throughout the game and hopefully nullify what he’s got to offer.”