West Coast midfielder Matt Priddis confident the Eagles can climb back up the AFL ladder West Coast extractor Matt Priddis is set to play his 150th career game. STAR West Coast midfielder Matt Priddis is confident the Eagles can rebound from a dismal season and revive premiership chances as early as next year. Priddis, 28, will make his 150th Eagles appearance on Friday night's big stage against powerhouse outfit Collingwood at the MCG with West Coast out of finals contention after starting this season as one of the genuine premiership contenders. The big possession-winning follower revealed that a return to regular finals is a driving ambition for coming seasons as he continues as one of West Coast's most influential play makers and club leaders. "We obviously haven't played too many finals games since 2007 and I've been a part of that rebuilding phase and I want to be a part of the team that is hopefully standing on the podium in the last day in September," Priddis said on Monday. It's a huge honour. I'm very grateful for the opportunity that it's given me. When I rocked up, I certainly wouldn't have thought that I would reach this milestone, but I didn't know that I was going to give absolutely everything that I had. Priddis is the Eagles leading possession winner for this season with 498 disposals at an average of 26 disposals a game from his 19 outings and dismissed a heavy Eagles injury toll as any excuse for West Coast's failure to make finals for a fourth time in the last six years. See your club's injury list "We need our best team available every single week, so if we get that right and then obviously the game plan, we need to make sure that our hunger is there to execute that and we've got enough contested ball players to stand up in finals footy," he said. We're confident that if we have a good run at it we can be a contender. Priddis, 28, made a blunt assessment on the Eagles failed 2013 campaign and that expectations from within the playing group and club had been for a significantly more accomplished season than to manage only nine wins and cop eight losses at home. "I don't think it was too much expectation," Priddis said. We had high expectation for ourselves. We're very disappointed we haven't been able to get to that level. But there's a number of factors that we haven't been good enough to execute with the playing group that we've had available. We had injuries last year and we were able to overcome that. This year we haven't been as good. The highly popular West Coast personality and leadership team member revealed that when he was first selected as a mature-age rookie in 2006 that he only expected to make "a handful" of appearances in a then star-studded Eagles midfield. Priddis had to make a statement to AFL recruiters with a record-winning Sandover Medal tally in the local WAFL before he was offered a chance on the Eagles list that at the time bragged superstar on-ballers Chris Judd, Ben Cousins, Daniel Kerr, Andrew Embley, Chad Fletcher as well as Tyson Stenglein and Michael Braun. "My first year was pretty much "07 and you gain confidence as the year went," he recalled. By the end of it I felt like maybe I could play a few seasons at this level and I was really enjoying learning off the midfield that we had and I absolutely love my footy instead of getting on a building sight. I wanted to make this last as long as I could and that eight years and hopefully there's a few more. Priddis becomes the 30th Eagles player to earn club life membership for crossing the 150-game barrier. The gritty left-footer concedes he is not a quick on-baller and that the Eagles need an injection of pace into their midfield will bolster plans for a return to finals and premiership contention as soon as next season. West Coast was smashed by a slick Geelong Cats midfield brigade in an 11-goal drubbing in Perth on Saturday night when a lack of pace and ball-handling class was exposed from West Coast. "We're really confident with the midfield group that we've got," Priddis said. I'm not quick enough, but I think we've definitely got the speed within the group. It's something we'd like to add into the mix and getting a full pre-season into the younger guys coming through, we've definitely got the mix to be contenders in September. Priddis declared classy Collingwood premiership import Sharrod Wellingham a possible recruit all over again in next year's rejuvenation plans after the gifted on-baller has been limited to just eight appearances after suffering two serious ankle injuries since crossing to West Coast last October. Wellingham, 25, has been West Coast's best player along with Priddis at each of the Eagles last two outings in a stirring win over Essendon and the ugly Cats loss. Sharrod's been fantastic. He's worked his way into some really good form and he's been able to string together three or four games in a row and he hasn't had that for a while," said Priddis. He's got great finishing skills in front of goal and he's really strong in the contest on the weekend and one of our better players. He's fantastic.