West Coast coach John Worsfold says Chris Judd is irreplaceable.

Judd, who led the Eagles to the 2006 premiership, has played his last game for the club after it was confirmed on Monday he was seeking to move back to Melbourne to be closer to friends and family.

He informed Worsfold of his decision on Sunday, giving the West Coast coach the answer he was hoping not to hear.

But Worsfold said trying to replace their captain would be impossible.

"You just go into the draft, pick a number out, pretty straight forward but you're not to replace, you're not going to get Chris Judd. That's obvious," Worsfold said.

"But we're very, very confident our recruiting guys will draft extremely well, using whatever picks we have."

"There's potential for trading for players and opportunities open up."

Worsfold said he avoided putting pressure on Judd, who said he came to his decision a few months ago, to stay.

"I was extremely comfortable to wait until the end of the season, respect Chris' wishes and let him make his decision," Worsfold said.

"I wasn't trying to broker deals or do anything to sway him either way, other than do my job the best I could in coaching the team."

Asked whether the club would prefer low draft picks or ready-made players in any trade involving Judd, Worsfold said that will be considered by himself and the match committee in the coming days, but he added you 'couldn't go wrong bringing in talented young players'.

"I've got my personal opinion, but we'll talk to the whole match committee about that and our recruiting staff because they are going to have the bigger say about the potential talent we can add to our squad through the draft," Worsfold said.

"Through early picks or ... it may be better to look for established players that clubs may be keen to trade on."