Elliot Yeo could be the man to play on Jeremy Cameron when West Coast face Geelong

For Yeo, the biggest challenge of his career is no small thing.

He has been sent to Nathan Fyfe in a derby when Fyfe was rated the best midfielder in the competition and he nullified him.

He has been sent to Dustin Martin when Martin was rated the best player in the competition and he beat him.

And he was the bloke that Simpson used to send to GWS’s Toby Greene in the early days, before Simpson realised he could leave Yeo in the midfield and play the now retired Brad Sheppard on Greene for better overall results.

Sheppard’s name popped up when Simpson was mulling over who might play on Cameron on Sunday at his Friday morning press conference. Sheppard had successfully done the job on Cameron before, he said. Therefore, maybe Yeo could too.

He rates Cameron as the best player in the competition right now. It would not be the first time he has plonked Yeo on the bloke rated as the best player in the competition.

But this would be a stretch. Yeo is 190cm. Cameron is 196cm.

Cameron hit one of the highest peaks of form in his 214 game career on Easter Monday when he kicked seven goals against Hawthorn.

Yeo played his first game for the season on Sunday after a calf injury and three injury affected seasons. He was on managed minutes against Melbourne and was checked out of the game at three quarter time while he was still in one piece.

But the possibility that Simpson would turn to Yeo exists because of a lack of viable alternatives.

The Eagles have included 200cm defender Harry Edwards in their squad for this match. He is big enough. But could he run with Cameron?

Josh Rotham (193cm) is mobile enough to run around the ground with Cameron. But how would he cope if the Geelong gun took him to the goalsquare?

Simpson also needs to find a match up for Tom Hawkins which is almost certainly going to be Tom Barrass.

And then, with Jeremy McGovern out, he needs to find the match up for Cameron.

“He is pretty good. [Cameron] is probably the competition’s best player at the moment and that is saying something for a non-mid. It is going to be a real challenge for us,” Simpson said.

“We have put a couple of things in place. We are a bit battle-weary down back but we will put a couple of things in place and see how we go.”

“We have got Barrass. Yeo will play down back and then there are those boys you spoke about (Rotham and Edwards). Keep it away from the forward line. That would be the first plan.”

Asked if Yeo was a potential opponent for Cameron, Simpson said: “Possibly. Brad Sheppard has done it in the past and done it well with good results. He (Cameron) is in really good form though. A lot of it is him and a lot of it is the supply too.”

The match up is made harder because of the unique way that Cameron goes about playing the tall forward role.

“It is his own role,” Simpson said. “He gets up the ground. He seems to be one of the fittest players on the ground too and he finishes his work. He is the complete player at the moment, a real challenge for us. And then Hawkins is not too shabby either.”

He said it was unlikely that Yeo would shift from defence to the midfield for this game.

“We thought his best football when he came back last year was down back and we are going to stick to that plan at this stage. That is not to say we can’t throw him in the middle there but I think we will keep him down back.”