Thanks G. Listening to Dal, the one take away message is that he rates the really pointy end of the draft, but that it falls away sooner than recent drafts. That for me is the one factor that means the club needs to be exploring all avenues. Be it:

- players maybe wanting out who might get us traded up the order a smidge to a player Dal wants,
- trading down the order for double second round picks like we did two years ago, or
- if we want mature good player/s, then trading out our first and/or second rounders.

There's top end kids already being thrown such as around Kelly (pick 2), Schache (pick 2) etc. And obviously free agency options for 'need' like Hansen, McKenzie & Trengrove for tall defenders. The other take home message from Dal was that we still have a good amount of salary cap left, and then the CBA rise too. With losing older players, perhaps 2 or 3 of them, I think we could use mature options much like Hawthorn did in 2009 with Burgoyne & Gibson, the same two types we need (elite kid and KPD). If we agreed our two needs are an elite ball user and KPD, and put (say) 10 up for Kelly and grabbed KPD through free agency we would've done the same thing. That still leaves a second & third rounder and anything we can get for fringe players like Campbell.

The more I think through this scenario, the more I think this is the year to go and get the mature guns/good players. Hypothetically, say West & Khamis are taken, that could take up a big chunk of draft points in 2018. If Ollie Libba & Josh Kellett make the grade for the 2019 draft, and we want them, then again, we might be using up points. So trade wise, we may not have a lot of tradable draft picks and would have to rely upon free agency if we want to top up each year. So perhaps this is the year, list wise, to trade for mature talent and balance retirements and also if Dal is saying he's not overly thrilled with picks passed a certain point, then perhaps the stars are aligning to point us towards trading assertively this year.