Collingwood list boss Ned Guy has defended the club’s strategy during the trade period following the departures of three players on trade deadline.
Adam Treloar (Western Bulldogs), Jaidyn Stephenson (North Melbourne) and Tom Phillips (Hawthorn) all found new homes on a dramatic finale to the 2020 trade period.
Guy denied the decision to trade the trio was down to a salary cap squeeze, saying it was a calculated move to improve the club's draft hand.
“I think we’re just navigating our way through the list management of it all,” Guy told Fox Footy.
“We want to continue strengthening our list and we think the draft is the best way to be able to do that.
“We’ve had a couple of good years, but we have been scaling backwards and we don’t want to wait to bottom out before we start bringing in new talent to compliment what we’ve already got.
“I don’t think it’s a fire sale at all. I think we just want to replenish the list and to be able to get into the first round, you’ve got to be able to give something up.
“We finished second, we finished fourth, we finished sixth, we want our trajectory to be heading back up the ladder.
“It’s part of a plan that we all put together and one we executed today. We want to replenish and add some talent through the draft.”
Guy touched on Treloar and Stephenson’s departures after the pair recently signed contract extensions at the Magpies.
“We had some conversations with Adam originally around whether his family was going to move to Queensland and whether he wanted to do that, and it just evolved from having that conversation to looking at another opportunity,” he said.
“It was just continued conversations throughout beyond the exit interview process with Jaidyn and his management.
“It just got to the point where Jaidyn was keen to play for North Melbourne.”
Collingwood secured picks 14, 65, 70 and a future second-round pick as a result of trading Treloar, Stephenson and Phillips.