Collingwood General Manager of Football Graham Wright joined AFL Trade Radio to discuss his club’s trade period.
With two days remaining, Collingwood look to have done most of their business with Taylor Adams departing for Sydney and Lachie Schultz joining the club from Fremantle.
Wright answered several questions facing the reigning premiers following the Schultz trade being made official on Monday afternoon.
On giving up a future-first round pick and pick 34 for Lachie Schultz
“Yeah, we are (happy to have Schultz) obviously.
“It’s always a little bit of a haggle in relation to what you're prepared to give up.
“But at least we're cognisant of the fact that Lachie was a Fremantle contracted player, he had a contract for 2024 with them.
“The issue was the fact that Lachie could return to Freo and play with them, and they would have been quite happy with that. So, we knew it was going to be a difficult trade to get done.
“But in our belief, Lachie was probably the best player in the trade or free agent group.
“So, we are really excited to have him part of Collingwood.”
When Collingwood flagged an interest in Schultz and when trade talks began
“It's an interesting one.
“Like a lot of clubs, we all sort of project forward and look at who may be free agents going into the years ahead and Lachie was one of those.
“We'd had some contact with his management earlier on this year around potentially next year.
“It came about late, it wasn't last week, it was just before the trade period started that Lachie was potentially looking to get back to Victoria for personal reasons but also that his family's here.
“When that became apparent to us, we were asked whether we were keen to look at getting into it now.
“Obviously, that was something we were really keen to do.”
Whether there was an issue with Taylor Adams and his management contacting Sydney about a move before the Grand Final
“There was no issue with us at all.
“I know Kinnear Beatson had mentioned that, but my understanding is that might have been his management that had reached out to Sydney and that may have been before that period of time, not Grand Final week.
“But the reality is I think we're in a professional environment where guys are able to look at their options, whether they be contracted or not contracted.
“We're talking about Lachie (Schultz) on the reverse here, so I think it's a little bit rich of us to have our nose out of joint about that or whatever it might be.
“We certainly knew that Taylor's focus was on his teammates and making sure that he was helping prepare them or being as good a teammate as he possibly could be in a really tough week for him.
“The Swans weren't a part of that until after that week's game.”
Whether there was a need to bring Schultz in and the role he’ll play
“We feel he can play a number of roles for us.
“We've got specific types that we have targeted or that we like to target and he fit into that category.
“I think he's in the best two or three pressure players in the competition, particularly in the front half of the ground.
“But he hits the scoreboard, he's an outstanding score assist player, we know he's got the ability to go through the midfield.
“He's actually got really high endurance, great speed and great power and as I said before, he's a good finisher.
“From our perspective, it wasn't that hard at all. As soon as we knew that he was potentially looking to make a move, we were very keen to get him.
“How that fits in with our other guys, that's obviously a job for our coaches now to work out what that mix looks like.
“But I've got no doubt Lachie will make a better team.”
On whether they’ve taken any calls on Jack Ginnivan following Schultz’s arrival
“No, I haven't taken any calls about that.
“We haven't sought to take calls (on Ginnivan) either.
“From our perspective, it hasn't been an issue at all.
“We see Jack as a part of what we're doing. He's contracted next year.
“So no, we haven't taken any calls at all.”
On whether Collingwood are planning any more off-season moves
“You never say never.
“I would have thought it would be difficult for us now, but we're open-minded.
“We certainly don't have any other players per se that we're having a look at.
“But, I mean, you never know. We are a bit over 48 hours until it's finished, so we're not sure.
“But, at this stage, I'd say it'd be doubtful. That might be it for us.
“Things come up late and you never really know until you get to that time, so something could be out there.
“But at this stage, I would have thought we're heading to the draft with a couple of picks, and we’ll look forward to that.”