West Coast's band of underperforming elders are running out of time to prove they belong among the new breed of Eagle, coach John Worsfold has warned.

Amid the second worst run in the club's history - only Ken Judge's 2001 side with eight losses in a row have performed worse - West Coast's players took it upon themselves to face up to the harsh reality of a dismal season following Friday's loss to Carlton.

A pre-planned social get-together turned into a truth session, which vice-captain Dean Cox said was designed to better understand what had gone so wrong so quickly.

Worsfold said if there was not marked improvement soon, some of the older Eagles - such as Michael Braun, Chad Fletcher, Tyson Stenglein and Andrew Embley - might find themselves out of chances and out of the side.

"Some of them have got to really start to step it up because they are closer to the end of their career than the start and young kids can step straight over the top of them," Worsfold told Fairfax radio.

"They need to show they want to be part of our next tilt at a premiership, I think that will keep them pretty hungry.

"They are aware where they sit, they have been told in no uncertain fashion about what we believe their form line is really like.

"They are aware they are better than that and we believe they can come out of it by doing the same amount of hard work as a young player might be.

"It won't just happen easily, but their character says in the past they have fought back and we believe they can fight back again."

The Eagles' slump has been put into sharp focus by bookmakers, who are now tossing up between West Coast and Melbourne for wooden spoon favouritism.

After their amazing comeback against Fremantle, the Demons are rated $2.20 to finish last by SportsTAB - with the Eagles $2.30.

But echoing the feelings of the Eagles hierarchy, Worsfold said the extraordinary dramas surrounding the club over the last year could be taking their toll.

"We have obviously been through a massive amount in the last 18 months, we are also very aware of where we want to be as a footy club," Worsfold said.

"One of the key things our chairman (Mark Barnaba) came out and said is that winning being the absolute number one and only priority is not the case for our footy club in our current environment.

"We have to get things right off the field, because there is no use winning games because we are playing well and carrying on - if the AFL then on the other hand takes points away from us because our behaviour is not good enough.

"The players have been very good in taking that on board. It is very hard to measure if that has had an impact on our onfield performance.

"But it is one factor that is out there that you do take into account."

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