West Coast Eagles coach Daisy Pearce has acknowledged the need to surround her young team with more experience after her side were brought back down to earth in 2026.

It comes as co-captain Bella Lewis said the finals-less season had been an important learning curve for the Eagles and it would do little to derail their long-term Premiership ambitions.

Hopes were high for West Coast after they secured a miden AFLW finals berth in 2025 but amidst a stronger slate of opponents faced, the Eagles won only four games — two less than last season.

Those four games came all at once in the middle of the season, with the Eagles both starting and finishing the 12-match schedule with separate four-game losing streaks.

A youthful West Coast fielded just four players over the age of 25 in their season-ending 55-point loss to Hawthorn, with one of them the retiring Belinda Smith.

Pearce said while their youthfulness was a strength, they would target more experienced players in the trade period and free agency.

“We’ll keep investing in developing our players, but it’s definitely going to be one of our strategies going into the trade period as well, to try and add a bit of experience to our list to complement their development,” she said.

Ever-dependable midfielder Lewis said their 13th-placed finish was not the end of the world and was confident they would be better for the experience.

“Progress isn’t linear, right? We’ve had lots of growth areas and lots of improvement areas, and so has every other club in the competition,” Lewis said.

“Premierships don’t get won in one or two years; they’re won in four, five, six years.

“When we look back at it in a couple of years, it’s definitely not going to be seen as a blunder or a bad thing. It’s just growth for us.”

Pearce issued a similar refrain to her captain and said the Eagles would heed the lessons learnt in 2026.

“Every season provides lessons, every game does. We’re the youngest team in the competition,” she said.

“We love that the competition has expectations of us and we embrace that, and we just want to keep improving. We try and learn no matter what, whether you win or lose, and this year it was a bit more of the latter.

“We’re going to look back and have some things we’re disappointed about. But we want to do that with perspective and encourage them to have the hunger to go and improve and get better.

“That’s what I’ve asked since the minute I started coaching them so the message won’t change just because. this season didn’t neccessarily translate to results.

“There’s other things we’ve seen grow, but we’ve got to put more work in. One thing for us, we’re putting the time in, let’s make sure we’re doing quality work and keep improving.”