West Coast captain Oscar Allen has declared youth will be no excuse for mediocrity this year as the Eagles attempt to defy "annoying" predictions of another wooden spoon finish.
The Eagles have posted just five wins across the past two seasons, and are in the midst of the biggest rebuild in the club's proud history.
West Coast collected the wooden spoon last year, and are hot favourites to finish last again in 2024.
For new co-captain Allen and the rest of the player group, the dire predictions haven't gone unnoticed - and will serve as motivation this year.
"It's annoying, it's quite frustrating," Allen said of West Coast being widely written off.
"I do understand why after our last 24 months, but we're building something and moving forward. So it's a good sense of motivation internally.
"But our fans, I hope they realise that we'll get better on field this year than we have the last 24 months."
West Coast now have the third-youngest list in the league - a far cry from a few years ago when they were one of the oldest.
The mass injection of youth, led by No.1 draft pick Harley Reid, has breathed new life into the club.
West Coast's campaign kicks off on Sunday with a tough away encounter against Port Adelaide.
Despite the Eagles' youth, Allen is demanding strong showings from the team.
That starts by becoming a tough contested ball team with a high tackle and pressure intensity.
"Being a young group, we're not going to accept mediocrity," Allen said.
"Heading forward, we still hold ourselves to high standards and we still have certain key performance indicators that we're going to go after.
"So just being a young side isn't an excuse for us to not achieve those."
Coach Adam Simpson's future was in doubt last year until a late win over the Western Bulldogs and a swell of support from the club's fan base saved his job.
Allen sang the praises of the 2018 premiership coach, who is contracted until the end of 2025.
"We love Simmo, we're 100 per cent behind him and we obviously want to play well for him," Allen said.
"We're super glad he stayed, just like all of our fans. It was great to see them all rally behind him.
"Simmo is very versatile in his coaching style - it's probably one of his best attributes with his coaching.
"He's really allowed player feedback to blossom and grow this pre-season, so a lot of our game plan and how we've gone about things has been naturally formulated from the playing group, which as a player has been really exciting."
Reid will make his AFL debut against the Power, while the Eagles will also unveil former Hawthorn forward Tyler Brockman.
Former Giants ruckman Matt Flynn (hamstring), Liam Ryan (hamstring), Elijah Hewett (feet) and Dom Sheed (foot) will all miss the start of the season.
Port Adelaide have named recruits Ivan Soldo, Esava Ratugolea and Brandon Zerk-Thatcher.
