Senior coach Adam Simpson says West Coast will continue searching for ways to improve the playing list this off-season and expects the club will be “reasonably” active in the upcoming player exchange period.

The Eagles have signalled their intention to recruit former Claremont small forward Zac Langdon from Greater Western Sydney, with Simpson hoping that deal can be done quickly.

But that might not be the club’s only activity when Free Agency (from October 30) and the Trade Period (November 4) get underway.

“We’re always on the lookout to improve our list,” Simpson told TAB Radio.

“Sometimes you’re more active than other years. Last year we were obviously heavily into getting Tim Kelly across and we’ve got a couple of targets that we look at but we don’t have a scattergun approach.

“I don’t think you see West Coast out there looking at every player in the competition normally, so we won’t be any different this year.

“That (possible Langdon trade) is to play out in the next couple of weeks but the understanding is he’s pretty keen to get home through personal reasons as well as to advance his footy, so we’re definitely part of that conversation.”

In addition to the immediate quest for success, Simpson said the club was constantly developing list strategy for the future in its bid to remain in the top eight hunt year after year.

“It’s interesting, I think every list is at the start of a five-year plan, really. I think you’re always projecting ahead from a list management point-of-view,” he said.

“There’s a few hats you wear as a senior coach, one is the immediate season in front of us and what we need to do to have success.

“Then there’s the ‘OK, how are we going to look in a few years and where our retirements look like, and what are we going to do to transition the list into a positive state?’.

“Always looking at that, so to assess it it’s really difficult.

“I do know though in the next couple of years we’ll probably see some legends of our club leave, so as much as we want to maintain our success and sustainability we also understand we’ve got to refresh our list as well.

“Hard to answer that one (how to assess the list currently), but I think we’re going to be competitive.”

With planning well underway for the players’ return to training in stages – starting with the first-to-fourth-year group on December 7 – Simpson pointed to recently-crowned John Worsfold medallist Nic Naitanui’s form as a guide to how crucial the next phase will be setting up the 2021 season.

The talismanic big man enjoyed his first pre-season in years leading into a career-best season, which also saw Naitanui earn his second All Australian blazer.

“I think what it did it just put to bed any questions people might have on Nic’s career. It’s one of those important individual accolades that he can reflect on in years to come,” Simpson said.

“It probably goes from being ‘at his best he was really good’ to ‘no, this guy is having a really good career with two knee reconstructions in the middle of it’. There’s not many players who have done that.

“A couple of All Australians, a best and fairest and obviously he’s missing a premiership, which we would all love to win for him as well.

“I’m not surprised (by his form). He had a full pre-season and every time our older players, or senior players, get full pre-seasons in they always seem to play well throughout the year.

“Critical time from November right through until round one for all of our players to get the minutes and Ks (kilometres) in the legs because they always end up being a bit more resilient throughout the season.”