Xavier Ellis says West Coast’s new recruits need time to find their feet in the Eagles’ nest.

The crafty Eagles defender can empathise with his new teammates given he came to West Coast with a weight of expectation due to his 86-game career with Hawthorn, which included a 2008 premiership.

Ellis told The West Australian he expected Jack Redden, Jonathan Giles and Lewis Jetta to hit their straps later in the season proper.

“You probably won’t see the best footy of those guys until halfway through the year,” Ellis told The West.

“Game-plan wise it probably shouldn’t take too long because all three of them have played a lot of footy, so in terms of football maturity it shouldn’t take too long. But getting to know your teammates’ strengths, where they like the ball kicked and where they like to run and all that stuff (will take longer).”

Ellis is also probably best positioned to understand Redden’s recent injury frustrations.

Although he is pushing for selection in the Eagles’ next NAB Challenge fixture against Gold Coast, the former Lion has endured a stop-start pre-season due to a niggling adductor injury.

Redden elected to go under the knife in August to remedy the issue and was put on a limited training program when he arrived at West Coast.

But less than a month into the pre-season the 25-year-old required another minor operation on his adductor and spent much of the New Year training away from the main squad in the club’s rehabilitation group.

Ellis has been similarly plagued by soft tissue injuries throughout his career which have cast him to the sidelines for more time than he’d like to admit.

Fortunately he has had a clean bill of health this pre-season and it is translating to solid performances on the training track.

“It’s the first pre-season in a while I’ve got through,” he said.

“This year I’m fitter than I have been in the last couple of years.”

The soon-to-be 28-year-old knows he will have to fight for a spot in the Eagles’ best 22 given the club’s breadth and depth of talent, but Ellis is confident his experience and desire will have him pulling on the blue-and-gold guernsey with regularity in season 2016.

“I’m getting old, but I still enjoy playing footy,” Ellis said.