You still need instruction and on-field leadership.
My proposal is one player, the counter proposal is a most Hawthorn-esque clean sweep.
I would argue you still need x-factor and matchwinners.
The rare, A-grade, top 5 in the AFL player that makes the difference on Grand Final day.
And we have exactly one of those on our list at the moment.
And these types are infinitely harder to find than half back flankers, no matter how good. We also have a few more elder statesmen with leadership qualities.
Regardless, I would rather not trade Rioli and Baker, but we might have to. It can be turned into a win win.
I would trade Shorty, because I think the draft value we'd get for him is higher than his value to us, as much as I've been his biggest fan over the years.
And all this is secondary to your suggestion that none of that matters. That a player only has value in the premiership window.
You seem to be jumping between two ideas. Players value is business only, and that swapping older players for younger picks is good business sense, and that we aren't contending in the next 5 years. Or, some players are fabric of the club, being old is irrelevant, and we need them for success in the near future.
I can only reconcile these, if all of this is predicated on the fact that you don't rate Shai Bolton.
Are you the bloke who sits behind me and keeps yelling out that he's a show pony?