WEST Coast assistant coach Daniel Metropolis says onballer Daniel Kerr and ruckman Dean Cox could have played this weekend, but the club is pursuing a safety-first policy.

Cox has a groin injury and Kerr is suffering from general soreness and neither player made the trip to freezing Melbourne for Saturday afternoon's clash with the Demons.

Metropolis said the club was erring on the side of caution.

"Coxy still just pulled up a little bit sore on Thursday after training. He wanted to play, but we thought it was best that if he's not quite right we'd give him another week to settle down," he said from training at Junction Oval on Friday afternoon.

"Kerry's just been a bit sore over the last few weeks. Again we thought he could play, but it was in his best interests to get himself right and get him up and going for the latter part of the year.

"So they should only be another week away."

The Eagles haven't won on the road since August 2007, but Metropolis said the side was getting closer to ending the 17-game streak.

"What we're building towards with our side is as we go along and get more games into our younger players, we're building them to be able to win anywhere," he said.

"This weekend's game is another opportunity for us to play away and win.

"No matter who your opponent is ... we're going into the game following our game plan that we think is going to take us forward.

"We'll continue to do that. We hope that that will be good enough for us to win, and we believe it is, so we go into this game very optimistic that we're going to get our first away win for a while."

Premiership midfielder Chad Fletcher will return back for his first game since round three and Metropolis said there was no underlying reason why the 29-year-old had spent almost three months in the WAFL.

West Coast has handed regular opportunities to younger players but Fletcher's efforts at that level had forced his recall.

"There's been no conflict or anything like that. It's just been a matter of selecting a side each week that we wanted to go forward with," Metropolis said.

"Fletcher's gone back to Subiaco and played some wonderful footy. It's a credit to him that he's done that and we're pleased for him that he gets another opportunity to play in our side.

"He's been a great servant of the West Coast Eagles and he deserves his spot, so we're pleased to have him in."

Defender Brett Jones was also selected for his first game since round nine.