It’s going to take a bloody long time to find players the calibre of Pendles and Sidebottom. Just like it would to find Dusty’s and Cotch’s.
The age matters because some of Collingwood best players in the granny were Pendlebury (35), Mitchell (30), Crisp (30), Howe (33), Sidebottom (32)
Who didn’t play well in the granny but had a big part in the season Adams (30), Mihocek (30), Elliot (31), Hoskin Elliot (30), Cox (32)
While you are saying trade some of our best players because they don’t fit the age demographic when we will be challenging next, you didn’t see Collingwood trade a Sidebottom or Pendlebury while finishing 17th, 12th, 13th, 12th, 11th in the last 10 years.
#2, 2005 Pendlebury
#11, 2008 Sidebottom
#13, 2011 Adams
#5, 2014 De Goey
#4, 2021 Daicos
That’s 16 national drafts to get that group.
My initial points still stand; the list is in real trouble and more top end talent will be required to rebuild it into a formidable opponent, and this usually requires higher end pics to obtain the players needed to drive that success.
The time it’s going to take to accumulate those pics is the question.
And I listed the Collingwood main mid group as an example of the type of pics that it would likely require. (For the mids group at least)
(I could create more examples but I’m not interested in turning the discussion into a assignment)
You raised the ages of Pendlebury & Sidebottom, (I think as an example of why you never trade top end pic players).
However Collonwood’s decision to hold onto those players for the period they have would be based on their own unique reasons and not on its own an illustration of why it should never be done.
Perhaps they didn’t want to lose the ‘type’ of player (mids who are the engine room of the team), or there was no ‘draw home’ factor, or no one came with big enough offers; who knows?
From where I sit we are uniquely positioned (to potentially) capitalise on two players who may net the team important pics that (could) speed up the climb back upward.
Baker has already held off talks and there are already rumblings about interest from his home state. He himself may even initiate the request so it’s not as if the fabric of the club would be torn if he did so; hopefully the interest would net pics in the teens that could be potentially turned into something better.
And Bolton for me is a striker (Sokka talk). Good strikers can score goals that others can’t; can make things happen and are electric to watch when on song. But to win championships you need a strong box to box midfield, (and our midfield is in no man’s land)
So why wouldn’t we entertain a top 10 pic and a pic in the teens for Bolton (just guessing here) if it came, to start replenishing the midfield with the required talent? (If the offer presented)
And trading a couple of players out doesn’t automatically turn us into North given the other players on the list.
For me these potentialities are worthy of conversation, and the reasons I’ve read as to why we shouldn’t or wouldn’t (from various posters) aren’t very robust.