Shannon Hurn never had any doubt he wanted to play on next season, with the champion defender still hungry to compete and win after a club-record 301 games for West Coast.

Hurn and veteran spearhead Josh Kennedy’s one-year contracts were officially ticked-off this week, with the pair to continue playing important roles as the Eagles set themselves to bounce back after missing finals.

The pair of 34-year-olds are due back at training when West Coast’s full squad reconvenes on December 6, and Hurn – who has returned to the family farm in Angaston – will be ready to swap the sheep shears for footy boots.

“If it was going to be a challenge or the thought of going through another pre-season or year was 50-50 or didn’t want to, there’s certainly no point playing,” Hurn told 6PR.

“I still felt comfortable throughout the year, unfortunately still had a couple of soft-tissue injuries, but I still really wanted to compete, wanted to win, still wanted to keep playing well and contribute to the team.

“That hasn’t changed and that was why I wanted to continue going on.

“I’ve been in (regular) contact with the club and (CEO) Trevor Nisbett has always been great. It (signing the contract) was always going to be at the back end (of the year) and there was a verbal agreement.

“As far as things in the country, what you say is what you’re going to do, so I always thought it was going to be fine.”

After missing finals for the first time in seven years, the Eagles have undergone some on and off-field changes, with former top-10 pick Sam Petrevski-Seton returning west from Carlton and new assistant coaches Jarrad Schofield and Matthew Knights joining the ranks.

Hurn, the 2018 premiership captain, also expected some tinkering with West Coast’s gamestyle, with a focus on moving the ball faster. 

“There probably will be (change) with a couple of the new assistant coaches, a couple of different ideas and being able to talk to ‘Simmo’ (coach Adam Simpson) … I think we will slightly change because last year it didn’t work unfortunately,” Hurn said.

“Everyone thinks we play a kick-mark type of game – and we probably do – that has its place in the game, but not as much as we played it.

“You need to get the ball going forward, bit of that randomness and get some pressure around the footy, so that will probably be a focus on us going forward.

“But, certainly, if you can get the ball playing a bit quicker and you can get it into your forward line through the midfield.

“That’s what you want to aim to do and that’s what we’ll probably look at doing.”