ADAM Simpson wasn't letting on much, but even after being belted by GWS on Saturday night, the West Coast coach said he is excited about what lies ahead in 2018.

With Matt Priddis, Sam Mitchell and Drew Petrie all retiring, the Eagles will have a vastly younger list when round one rolls around next season.

Simpson said some young Eagles had A-grade potential, and with Nic Naitanui a virtual new recruit next year after missing a season with his ACL, it was exciting times ahead.

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He said they would learn lessons from a Giants team that outworked and outran his men.

"We've been in transition for a little bit with some of our list and how we want to work it," Simpson said.

"We need to get better across the board.

"We're aware of some of our flaws that we've got to get better at, and we're going to work really hard over summer to get that right."

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Simpson said the list profile would look "completely different".

"I'm actually excited about that," he said.

"We still think we've got a young list with some good A-grade potential that are still going to be here next year.

"We'll be younger and we need to draft well and look at trade and all those sorts of things, but now it becomes an opportunity for some of our younger players.

"They've got to step up in some senior players' absence."

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With Priddis, Mitchell and Petrie all finishing, 901 games of experience walks out the door.

"They were emotional, we all were, in particular Pridda," Simpson said.

"He's done so much for our club and we're so proud of the type of person he's developed into.

"We're going to lose three very good individuals, three very good people, let alone footballers."

Simpson failed to guarantee veteran Mark LeCras' future, saying it was a "list management decision" that would be resolved in the coming weeks.

West Coast finished one week later that last season, and Simpson said they only had themselves to blame for having to travel the past two weeks.

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"It didn't matter that we had to travel a couple of weeks in a row," he said.

"We put that on ourselves throughout the season. We've got to accept that.

"Tonight we just weren't good enough. Everything we tried didn't work.

"We had to play perfect footy tonight and the moment we turned the ball over we got exposed."