West Coast will nurse several of their senior players through the early rounds of the NAB Cup with Daniel Kerr among the Eagles expected to sit out Sunday's matches against Fremantle and Essendon.
Kerr was one of many veteran West Coast players to turn back the clock with rejuvenated performances in 2011, which led the club to a shock preliminary final appearance.
But with the midfielder already 28 years old, coach John Worsfold has identified him as one of many players he will nurse through the pre-season.
Thirty one-year-old on-baller Andrew Embley will miss the first round of the NAB Cup after dislocating his shoulder in early February, while Beau Waters will also sit out and Nic Naitanui also will be absent after having off-season surgery.
Worsfold said ruckman Dean Cox, captain Darren Glass and midfielder Matt Rosa were also likely to only play one of the two games on Sunday, while Mark LeCras and Matt Priddis faced a similar scenario.
But the coach was confident having so many of his players miss time in the NAB Cup wouldn't harm their preparations for the season proper.
"There's quite a few that won't be out there. The main one is obviously Naitanui coming back from surgery, Waters, probably Kerr, Embley won't play, they're probably the main names," he said.
"They're probably the main guys through injury or unavailability who won't play and the others are more about mapping out a program."
"A lot of the senior guys [won't play], and again it's just about loading, but maybe LeCras and Priddis, possibly only play one game."
"Kerr's right to play but it's more about our mapping out his program to get him ready for the season."
Naitanui, Waters and Kerr are expected to return for either West Coast's second match against Port Adelaide on March 3 or their third against the Saints a week later.
Worsfold said they'd weigh up Embley's recovery in a couple of weeks, while Mitch Brown was 'still a bit off' but was likely to play at some point in the NAB Cup.
The coach said the many expected absentees would give opportunities to several younger players, including young ruckman Scott Lycett.
"He can show how exciting a player he's going to be for us. He's had a good pre-season and he's going to be a very good player," Worsfold said.
"It's a great learning opportunity for him to get some good ground time in these games … and that goes for many of the younger players."
Worsfold said the flexibility of the two-game format had given the coaching staff flexibility with how to work players back into match fitness and that the club was happy with it.