WEST Coast chief executive Trevor Nisbett has hailed retiring captain Darren Glass as one of the club's most important figures in this era.

Nisbett has been the club's CEO since 1999, the year Glass was drafted to the Eagles with pick No. 11 in the NAB AFL draft.

Despite all of Glass' magnificent playing achievements, Nisbett believes Glass' contribution to the club off the field is possibly his greatest legacy.

Glass ascended to the captaincy at the start of 2008 following the departure of Chris Judd to Carlton.

West Coast skipper retires

The club was shrouded in controversy following the revelations of a recreational drug culture that had seen former captain Ben Cousins sacked by the club, and several other players moved on.

Nisbett said Glass' leadership held the club together.

"He was the lynch-pin," Nisbett said.

"If he didn't buy in to what we were trying to do, you don't have any chance if your leader doesn't buy in, and he was the first one to put his hand up and say, 'I'm in, we need to change this'.

"We had to change the culture that we had and it took us three or four years to do that. Cultural change is probably the most difficult thing.
"He has now left a legacy."

Nisbett said Glass should be ranked among the most important contributors in the club's history.

John Worsfold is widely regarded as the club's greatest ever figure and Nisbett himself has been a pivotal player behind the scenes at West Coast for more than two decades.

Yet in this era, over the last decade, the CEO ranks Glass alongside Worsfold for his contribution to the club.

"Probably in this era, he's as important as anyone," Nisbett said.

"Because he not only played in the early 2000s, but he helped change the culture and between us we had five or six key people who had to do that and drive it and he drove it.

"Darren is right up there with the best and that's why to get the All Australian selectors to recognise him as the All Australian captain in 2012 was a great feather in his cap for a guy who doesn't probably didn't think he should be in the team.

"That's how he looks at it."

Nisbett believes Glass would walk into the AFL's Hall of Fame as soon as he is eligible.

"I would be very surprised if he didn't with his record," Nisbett said.

"Three club champion awards, four All Australians, All Australian captain, premiership player, and a remarkable person."