West Coast veteran Tom Cole says he has been invigorated by the challenge of making a late-career positional switch from defence into the forward line, and he hopes the move will help extend his AFL career.

The 2018 premiership backman was dropped after the Eagles’ round one loss to Gold Coast and spent six weeks in the WAFL before eventually earning a recall in round eight.

In recent weeks, he has been shuffled into a new role as a high half-forward and impressed, kicking what were just the seventh and eighth goals of his 138-game career in a six-point loss to Port Adelaide on Saturday night.

While the depth of West Coast’s defence was shown by the omission of impressive first-year half-back Josh Lindsay last week, their forward stocks have been stretched thin by injury, with Cole’s premiership teammate Jamie Cripps and young pair Jacob Newton and Noah Long all sidelined for the long term.

Cole said Eagles coach Andrew McQualter told him he would be well-suited to play as a half-forward due to his work rate and ability to apply pressure, and he jumped at the chance to make the switch.

“I’ve been sending a few messages into the back-line group chat, just telling them to spoil and get it into us, and they haven’t taken that too well,” Cole joked.

“I’m a defender at heart, and probably always will be, but it’s been a nice little change-up.

“It’s been something really different, but at the same time, I’ve played on some good forwards over my journey, so I know the running patterns of a forward, what good forwards do, because I’ve had some goals kicked on my from good forwards.

“I think goal-kicking can be a bit mental . . . I haven’t practised a whole lot over my 10 years with my routine or anything, so I’ve just kept it simple and tried to go back and kick them.

“It’s been a fun few weeks, something completely different. Whether it’s for the long term, I don’t know, but I’m enjoying at the moment.”

Cole was forced to endure a nervous wait over his future last year, but eventually penned a one-year contract extension with the Eagles in September after a strong finish to the season.

When asked if he was hoping to start negotiations over another new deal soon after his AFL recall, Cole remained guarded.

“I’m not really looking too far ahead, to be honest. I’m just trying to put my best foot forward and play some good footy. I think I’ve still got some good footy left in me,” he said.

“I’m old amongst the group we’ve got, but I’m only 29.

“We’ll just take it one week at a time.”

West Coast will be aiming to bounce back from their loss to the Power and notch their fifth win for the year on Saturday against North Melbourne, which will be their final game before the mid-season bye.

The Kangaroos are coming off a 124-point humbling from Fremantle in Bunbury on Saturday and have already lost to the Eagles this season, but Cole said his side was expecting a firm test.

“They’ll be wanting to respond, I’m sure. Every AFL player goes out there to compete and win. I’m sure they’ll be disappointed with that result,” he said.

“They’ve had some good wins this year against some good teams.

“We’ll be ready for the best version of them. It’ll be a good game.”