West Coast coach Adam Simpson can sense the disappointment of last season has sharpened the Eagles’ focus after the squad returned to pre-season training in impressive condition.

Aiming to get as fit and healthy as possible after an injury-ravaged and challenging campaign, the Eagles are looking lean and hungry to get stuck into the hard work on the training track.

Leading the charge have been West Coast’s younger leaders including Tom Barrass, the reigning John Worsfold medallist, and Liam Duggan – who finished fifth in the Club Champion award – plus proven trio Dom Sheed, Oscar Allen and Tom Cole, who combined for just one AFL game last year.

“The inner pride, resilience, all those types of things (are there) for guys who have been around a while,” Simpson said on Wednesday.

“Dealing with success, now dealing with failure and having a real sense of vision and focus on what we need to do.

“They’re all really keen to get it right and that’s expected, but they’re executing as best they can.

“The younger leaders are the ones that are really going to take over the club. From the age profile from Barrass down we’re going to lean a lot on those guys.”

Simpson heralded a new era coming after the Eagles hit their designated targets in last week's draft and added to last year’s impressive off-season recruiting, and the club has beefed up its development program as the list transitions towards a younger profile.

However, West Coast’s senior stars still have critical roles to play and, pleasingly, skipper Luke Shuey and luckless midfield bull Elliot Yeo have been training strongly following minor off-season calf niggles.

Meanwhile, key forward Jack Darling is not expected to miss too much training after managing back tightness. 

“(Yeo) does need a clean run at it. He had a tiny, tiny niggle in his calf and we’ve just been conservative,” Simpson said.

“He’s been running for probably a month and he could start training tomorrow, really, but we’re just going to take our time, get to Christmas and hopefully get a really good run at it in the new year.

“Unfortunately, it’s been reoccurring and we’re trying everything we can to get him right.

“(Shuey) just went a bit hard. He’s gone turbo, 'Boots'. He really wants to set the standard. He wants to give it a good run.”

Shuey played 13 games in a row to finish last season with 17 appearances in a positive step after several soft-tissue setbacks, and Simpson backed the dynamic onballer to retain the captaincy ahead of the formal process to be run early next year.

"I can’t see us changing too much. We normally use a player vote and we’ll contribute, but I wouldn’t have thought there’ll be much change,” Simpson said.

“Probably didn’t see the best of him (last season), but he was out there. I think he’s really keen to get a good pre-season in and get back to the form he was a few years ago – that’s his next goal.

“It’s still there – I can see it in the way he trains – so we’ll see how he goes in the new year.”

Simpson also detailed that the Eagles would assess Isiah Winder’s situation in January after the rookie forward was involved in an alleged incident last Friday night which is currently being investigated by Victoria Police.

Winder, who was re-listed as a rookie last week, will train away from the senior squad for the time being but still has use of club facilities and medical staff.

"We're heading in this direction while we transition our list and bring some youth in and excitement, and he's got a little bit of work to do to get that back," Simpson said.  

“Disappointed but we still need to look after his health and wellbeing, though, to make sure he’s OK in that sense, but there’s a bit of work to do (for Isiah).

“We’re an AFL club and we’ve got standards, but we also need to look after the person.”