West Coast premiership captain Chris Judd is confident the embattled Eagles have turned a corner, predicting this will be the final season of brutal triple-figure losses.

Judd and fellow Brownlow medallist Ben Cousins sat down for an exclusive and rare one-on-one interview on 7NEWS on Sunday night, where they not only fondly reminisced about the glory days of the 2006 premiership, but also spoke about their hope for the future of their beloved Eagles.

WATCH THE FULL 14-MINUTE INTERVIEW IN THE PLAYER ABOVE

Widely renowned as one of the best players to ever don the blue-and-gold, Judd joined the Eagles during a rebuild at the start of the noughties, before producing an incredible 134-game career at the club, which culminated in their third flag.

The now 42-year-old was the last Victorian that captured the affection of the West Coast’s passionate fan base before their newest superstar, Harley Reid, who Judd said no longer had to shoulder the responsibility of the rebuild alone.

Judd said Reid now had plenty of exciting young talent around him and pointed to fellow No.1 draftee Willem Duursma as well as ruckman Cooper Duff-Tytler to stars of the next generation.

“I feel like the nucleus of their next really good team is there,” Judd said.

“Harley Reid’s been a brilliant young player so far in the competition, but up until this year, he felt like he was the one shining light, and it was going to be a lot of pressure and work for him.

“It feels like the cavalry has arrived now. Duursma looks really good and polished, and there’s a bit of variety.

“Duff-Tytler — you don’t see a lot of guys that size who are as coordinated. I think if they’re really tall and good on the ground, they don’t catch it, but he looks like he’s going to be able to do both, so there’s some uniqueness there.

“It feels like there’s a nucleus there of a really good young talent. So the key would be to keep them all together for long enough for that to really build and to gel and to get that cohesion and continuity.

“At the minute, with their age profile, they’re a bit vulnerable to some injuries here and there, which is what happens generally with a young list.

“It feels to me like it’s turned a corner. There will still be some hurtful losses along the way, but I would’ve thought this is probably the last year we get those really ugly losses, and there’ll be some good wins too. And then I think it probably reflects high from here.”

Judd, Cousins and their fellow 2006 premiership heroes were paraded around Optus Stadium at half-time of the Eagles’ loss to Richmond on Saturday.

Reflecting on the powerhouse era, Judd said they had the right balance of players at the time, which led to success.

“Personality-wise, there’s a lot of obsessively driven guys in that team, and you (Cousins) are one, and I was one, I was lucky to come to a club, and I could watch you train and follow that,” he said.

“But there were also some guys who were good at building relationships in that club that muted out that obsessive drive. You need both of them.

“If you get too many in this camp, that camaraderie doesn’t build and doesn’t work. And if too many are in this camp, sometimes the standards aren’t quite as extreme as they need to be for success. So it was a combination that worked.”

Judd said the strong influence of the past premiership heroes from 1992 and 1994 had driven that side to create its own legacy.

“The group had an enormous desire to succeed. There was a lot, a lot of that ‘92 and ‘94 team that were sort of in and around the place,” he said.

“That group was hungry to want to create their own bit of history and create something that they sort of owned.

“And I do think what gets overlooked in that group was just how hard that group worked. The running power in that group was enormous. When you speak to guys who went to other clubs, they were surprised at how much work that team (did). It’s no wonder not a lot of guys in that team played a long time because they just burned themselves on the track.”

While the pair had fond memories of their time at the club, the deaths of Adam Selwood and Adam Hunter weighed heavily on the experience.

“There will just be forever a hole in all our hearts that those two aren’t being for the celebration, but more importantly, for everything else in life,” Judd said.

“They were both brilliant players in the team, important cogs, but more than that, they were just wonderful people.”