I suppose (as Ratts would say) that Malthouse or whoever takes over would like to have his shot at instilling the aggression, professionalism and confidence in our under-performing players rather than overseeing a mini-rebuild, so this may be a moot point. But I think it's worth discussing which players we might look at trading out to give us a shot at success in the medium term.

We've focussed on trading picks for players for so long, with free agency coming in maybe it's an opportunity to trade out some of our salary cap to enable a shot at bringing in quality free agents while also bringing in a stack of talented kids.

OBVIOUSLY not suggesting all of these go, but worth a look, with guesstimate at trade value (your mileage may vary):

Judd - pick 10
Gibbs - pick 10
Kreuzer - pick 10
Hampson - pick 18
Garlett - pick 20
Watson - pick 25
Warnock - pick 30
Waite - pick 30
Jamison - pick 30
Lucas - pick 30
Ellard - pick 45
Duigan - pick 50
Russell - pick 50

Just as a list management strategy to consider, offload a high value, 2 mid value and a low value. Get a pick 10, 25, 35 and 50. Add to (guessing our picks) pick 12, 30 and 48.

Picks 10, 12, 25, 30, 35, 48, 50.

Ease pressure on salary cap. Push hard to pick up 2 highly rated free agents from Cloke, Chaplin, Boak, Goddard etc.

Delist/retire a few senior players on decent money.

Addition of 2 quality mature players mostly offset loss of the "high value" and "medium value" players, while the 7 top 50 draft picks SHOULD set us up for the long term.

Would have the added benefit of shaking up the rest of the list a bit, and stamping the new coach's imprimatur on the team.

Far too early to turn over the whole list. Ridiculous actually. We have a very good list with some holes and a lack of leadership and structure. If we address that the window is still open.

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TC suffers from the social media illness - the death of respect and constructive discourse by keyboard.

Has Ratten already been sacked, we can after all, still mathamatically make the finals

this is why we need Freo to win today.

anyone who needs post-season surgery, get 'em in there now.

geez u overate our players

duigan ellard russell will get u nothing, and the rest ur about 10 picks to high on most of them

I like the idea of some aggresive trading.

I'd be looking at Gibbs, Garlett, Hampson to begin with. Russell and Thornton should have gone a year ago when they were worth something.

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"I had to eat"

You're right, probably. So insert your own values and players.

I think the concept has merit, especially as we can make up for the loss of senior quality with free agents.

Our list is not the problem... We have a good side that can go a long way. I thought we were missing some kpp, but Levi looks like he fits the bill. Let's not get too crazy on the back of a lot of injuries

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"our guest is dressed by hand-me-downs, hair designed by pillow"

I think the only player of real value that we could realistically trade out would be one of the ruck men - Warnock or Hampson. I can't see them getting rid of anyone else unless they want to leave.

What is interesting is that we have a potentially serious lack of talent coming through from the last few drafts. Obviously it's still a bit of a guessing game, as the are early in their careers, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of top level potential there. Our best leaders are Judd, Simpson, Scotland and Carazzo, all 28+ and all still in our top 8-10 players, and Murphy and Jamison. There's Murphy, Gibbs and Krezuer who are potential A-graders, Betts will be 26 next season, McLean 27, Walker 27. Who is there underneath those?

Potential A-graders

Yarran
Laidler
Henderson?
Robinson?
Garlett??

The rest are unknown, but at this stage not looking like becoming A graders (harsh on some like Bootsma who are still babies). Lucas is one who we thought might step up, but so far hasn't.

We're potentially in serious trouble once Judd, Scotland, Simpson, Carazzo and Waite are gone, and that's only 3-4 years away. We are in serious need of some talent to come through, and I reckon we need to get our hands on 2 or even 3 first rounders in a hurry. We'll have a top 12 pick this year, trade out Hampson or Warnock, we could have 2 picks in the top 20ish in a strong draft.

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Mens sana in corpore sano.

Bring back the laurel wreath logo!!!

That's why I'm advocating that they look at some more extensive trading out. I don't expect it would happen, but we need to rejuvenate the list, and this season we have a number of players with some currency, as well as the potential to grab free agents.

The free agents shore up the team for 2013 while the extra draft picks take care of the future.

Eg trade Gibbs out and bring in the older Goddard who's a free agent to take his place. Use the Gibbs pick to get Caddy or the best young mid available. You lose the four years that Gibbs is younger by, but you have an 18-20 year old with 5 more years than Bryce, and who will play 4 years together with Goddard. That's a win. Only downside is extra money needed.

Look at Waite for a second rounder and bring in Cloke. Warnock goes for pick 35.

Net result lose Gibbs Waite, Warnock, gain Cloke, Goddard, Caddy, pick 20 and 35

It's a little extreme, but I would argue that's a big win. What would Geelong do with picks 12 29 30 35 48?
There's your rebuild of the list with arguably IMPROVEMENT of the team in 2013. We probably couldnt take the salary cap pressure but surely worth a little off season conjecture

not ready to give up on gibbs yet lets see how he goes with new coaches

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"Then joked and said he (Jack himself) probably wouldn't even need to play until round 2 against Collingwood."

Garlett is #2 on our goalkicking, despite having an ordinary season. One thing we do not want is to give away a 30 goal a year small forward and then have him kick goals against is later. That's just sill.
Gibbs can do as far as I'm concerned. I'm over him. Hampson I would prefer over Warnock but if one goes and one stays it's probably not that much of a difference.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Trading out after a disappointing year is counter productive.
We're better of delisting who we want to get rid off and getting in kids. Trade out next year when our players have better value.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Hopefully no two year deals for list cloggers either.

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch