Former GWS coach Leon Cameron is anticipating Richmond to give up a combination of players and draft picks in order to trade for Giants pair Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper.
The two Giants midfielders have both nominated the Tigers as their preferred club for 2023 and beyond, leaving New South Wales after being offered huge seven-year deals.
As compensation for the loss of two key players, GWS are insisting they receive multiple first round draft picks from Richmond, with Taranto costing at least two and Hopper a single top-10 pick at minimum.
However, Cameron anticipates that players will be part of the deal, not just the draft haul the Giants are after.
“No doubt there’s going to be picks… I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some players in play there, that’s up to the Giants and the Tigers to work out,” he said on SEN’s Crunch Time.
“There’s no precedent, you can’t look back and say, ‘well two players going to one club at that high level, where do you go.’
“To try and bundle up a package to make sure that that works for both clubs, clearly it’s going to have to be a combination of picks and a player or two”
For Cameron, the departure of Taranto and Hopper embodies the toughest aspect of keeping clubs such as the Giants competitive.
“Management of salary cap, that’s tough being here in Queensland or New South Wales, keeping players, that retention and keeping them from going back to South Australia or Victoria,” he said.
“A side that finishes 16th loses two guys, one has won a best and fairest and one has finished in the top four probably three or four times in the last four or five years, it doesn’t seem right”
“The last four or five years it has been tough at the club, because of losing players like (Jeremy) Cameron and talking about Hopper and Taranto and (Jye) Caldwell and these guys, you don’t want that, and I don’t know the perfect answer of how you can stop it.
“It doesn’t look great for the game, you don’t want kids being developed at the Gold Coast Suns or the Giants, two start-up clubs, and then all of a sudden they get to their peak five or six years in and then bang they’re gone.”
During Cameron’s time as coach at GWS, he found that the key to success for interstate clubs was to focus heavily on academy systems, however admitted that it is a difficult approach.
“We’re watching a side at the moment in the Swans, that’s why the academy is so important, having players homegrown from New South Wales that probably want to stay and don’t want to move down to Victoria, it’s a combination of three or four things.
“Knowing how you manage your salary cap and how you can get players up here that are invested in moving away from home and living in Sydney, there’s an art to it, it’s a really hard one.”
Taranto and Hopper are not the only players seemingly on the way out of GWS, with Bobby Hill and Tanner Bruhn also being linked to other clubs.