McQualter spent almost a decade as an assistant to Hardwick at Richmond, with the pair helping lift the Tigers to premiership success in 2017, 2019 and 2020.
When Hardwick quit midway through 2023, McQualter temporarily took the reins at Richmond, guiding the side to seven wins and six losses before losing out on the permanent job to Adem Yze.
Hardwick moved to Gold Coast in time for the 2024 campaign, and McQualter was appointed West Coast coach in September last year after spending a season at the Demons.
"It's funny how it works. Hopefully it's one of many battles we will have over the next few years," McQualter said of going head-to-head with Hardwick for the first time on Sunday.
"I spent 10 years working directly under him.
"I learned a lot from him and spent a lot of time working with him, so clearly he's been really influential on me, but he's the enemy on the weekend."
McQualter has promised to implement a fast and chaotic game style at West Coast, similar to that which worked so well for Richmond under Hardwick.
But it won't be all chaos.
"We need to be well rounded," McQualter said.
"It's not just going to be chaotic and fast the whole time. I think that any good team in the competition has to have multiple ways to play, and we'll try and build that out as well as we can."
West Coast are tipped to finish near the bottom of the ladder again, but there's optimism within the four walls that the most painful part of the club's rebuild is over.
The past three seasons have yielded a total of just 10 wins.
But with West Coast's youngsters growing in stature, combined with the arrivals of new recruits Liam Baker, Jack Graham and Matt Owies, West Coast have the foundations to build on last year's five-win campaign.
With Elliot Yeo (ankle/knee) still five weeks away from resuming, there will be more pressure on players such as Tim Kelly, Harley Reid and Elijah Hewett in the midfield.
Hardwick led Gold Coast to a 13th-placed finish with an 11-12 record in his first year in charge, and hopes are high that the Suns can contend for the finals this year.
Gold Coast will begin their season without Mac Andrew (chest) and Sam Flanders (back), but recruits Daniel Rioli and John Noble will make their club debuts.
West Coast are without Liam Ryan (hamstring), but McQualter is backing a super fit Tyler Brockman to help fill the void, while fellow small forward Noah Long is back from a long-term knee injury.
Key forward Archer Reid has been named for his debut, and will help support Matt Flynn in the ruck.
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