After the setback of losing five promising young players to their home states at the end of 2013 – and with important veterans in their twilight years – the Lions enter this season with their list delicately poised.
But rather than rebuilding solely through youth and sacrificing on-field performances, Leppitsch said the Lions would aim to hold their ground over the next three years before pushing for the top four.
"I don't think we'll be in a position where we’ll want to trade every pick we've got [but] trade is one avenue to get your team better," Leppitsch told AFL.com.au.
"There is a balancing act that will have to be played with our list over the next three years to make sure we remain competitive but then also push for the top four.
"We've got our list formula ... myself, (list manager) Rob Kerr and (football manager) Dean Warren have sat down and we know what that looks like over the short-, medium- and long-term.
"Now it's just a matter of finding the players and attracting them to our club and keeping the ones we want to keep."
The Lions lost Elliot Yeo (West Coast), Sam Docherty (Carlton), Patrick Karnezis (Collingwood), Billy Longer (St Kilda) and Jared Polec (Port Adelaide) through trades at the end of last season.
They took a proactive approach at the trade table and received compensation for every player, but by the end of the process their average age had dropped from 12th in the league to 14th.
That could drop further over the next three seasons as key senior players Jonathan Brown, Daniel Merrett, Joel Patfull and Jed Adcock approach retirement.
"There's a basic formula for age and experience analysis out there that can tell you a premiership team's make-up and a finals team's make-up," Leppitsch said.
"We're probably a little bit south of that just on numbers.
"It doesn't mean it's an excuse for not winning or being competitive, but you have to be mature to play finals footy. It's just the way.
"Some lists are thereabouts now and some aren't. Over the next three years we're hoping to build that."
Leppitsch admitted he had thought: "What did I take this mess on for?" when he was appointed as Michael Voss's successor in September last year.
As well as the player exodus, two months of boardroom in-fighting had robbed the club of stability.
With new chairman Bob Sharpless in place and triple premiership coach Leigh Matthews returning to the club as football director, however, Leppitsch said the Lions were now in good hands.
Having won 10 games in each of the past two seasons, he said a win-loss pass mark was hard to identify, but avoiding the big losses of 2013 would be a priority.
"I'd like to see our percentage increase, I'd like to see us get closer to 100 per cent," he said.
"That would mean we're very evenly balanced and we're not getting scored against heavily.
"I'd like to see some consistency in what we're doing as a playing group, so we don't have those highs and lows."
Twitter: @AFL_Nathan
