Collingwood footy boss Graham Wright is not expecting another player exodus in this year’s trade period.
The Magpies lost senior players Adam Treloar, Jaidyn Stephenson and Tom Phillips and youngster Atu Bosenavulagi last year due to salary cap problems.
Wright admits there is a “hangover” of sorts in relation to the club’s list management but is confident there will not be a similar occurrence in 2021.
“There’s still a hangover in relation to the salary cap. We’ve still got some issues we’re dealing with there, but they’re not insurmountable at all,” he said on SEN Breakfast.
“There hasn’t been any conversation at the moment about how we look at the list from an end of year perspective and exactly what we’re going to do.
“Obviously we took two younger players (Ash Johnson and Aiden Begg) in the mid-season draft last night and that was really around talent.
“So from our perspective we’re looking at how do we bring in talent and using all mechanisms of player acquisition to do that, whether that be trade, whether that be free agency, whether that be drafts and mid-season drafts.
“We’re looking at all of those things at the moment but no concrete decisions made on anything from that perspective.
“The club last year lost about 1300 games of experience with guys retiring plus the trade (period). We brought in eight first-year players, if you take into account the rookies, and we’ve just brought in another two players in now who haven’t played AFL footy so the age demographic has gone down considerably.
“Now we just need to continue to add talent.”
Asked if Collingwood would be forced to lose big-name players in a similar situation at the end of this year as a result of salary cap restrictions, Wright was adamant that would not be the case.
“I wouldn’t have thought so,” he added.
“From a talent perspective, we need to keep as many talented players as we can so I don’t think that’s in our thinking at the moment.
“It hasn’t been discussed either, but from my perspective you need your talented players part of what you’re doing.”
Wright also stuck by the company line when asked about the future of coach Nathan Buckley.
“We’ve been pretty consistent all the way through that it will be in the back-half of the year and that’s where it stands,” he said.
The Magpies, who currently sit 16th on the ladder with a 2-9 record, meet the Crows at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.