WITH trade week upon us, afl.com.au runs through how each of the 16 clubs are placed and which players, if any, they will be courting in the post-season period.
Shane Wakelin and Scott Burns have gone, leaving Anthony Rocca, Simon Prestigiacomo, Shane O'Bree and Tarkyn Lockyer as the only players who will be 30 or over in 2009.
And, when you look at their list in reverse order of age, youngsters such as Nathan Brown, Ben Reid, John McCarthy, Sharrod Wellingham, Jack Anthony and Chris Dawes are a genuine part of the Pies' future.
Dale Thomas, Scott Pendlebury, Marty Clarke and Tyson Goldsack are also improving by the year and have plenty of room to move further upwards.
Where did the club fall down in 2008?
By not having a genuine match winner, the Pies, and coach Mick Malthouse, have proven that you don't need a side full of experienced players to make finals with their selection of young success stories in the past two years.
However, the Pies have also discovered that such a young list can't always be called upon to pull off remarkable results.
A lack of consistent stars, and pacy ones at that, is what let Collingwood down this year.
When the side was down on the day, it was made to look far off the pace and incapable of recreating the performance it put in when beating Geelong in round nine.
Rhyce Shaw's name will be bandied about again, especially after his off-field indiscretion late in the season, but this year it might attract some serious attention.
Shaw had his best season as a Magpie in 2008, running with some of the most effective players in the league, while still managing to collect a decent amount of the ball.
The Pies' forward structure, while hurt by injuries this year, could also be an embarrassment of riches in 2009 with Rocca, Anthony, Dawes, Reid, Rusling, Paul Medhurst, Leon Davis, Travis Cloke, Alan Didak and Brad Dick all set to push for a spot. Therefore, young guns Reid and perhaps Rusling could be seen as valuable acquisitions for other clubs and tradeable for the Pies.
There will also be talk about Didak and Heath Shaw and their chances of remaining at the club, after their bad behaviour late in the year.
"We will potentially look at players that can fill a need, but we won't compromise our position in the draft," the club's national recruiting manager Derek Hine said.
"We've demonstrated in the last few years that we've been prepared to go to the draft and develop players.
"Last year, we got Cameron Wood to address a specific need in the ruck. The year before we traded out Chris Tarrant for an early first-round draft pick and that allowed us to get Ben Reid and Paul Medhurst.
"In this particular climate, all clubs are mindful that the new franchise is coming in, so they're all very keen to hang onto their draft picks.
"So for that very reason, there probably won't be a lot of exchanges of picks, but there may be more player-for-player trades. So we're open to everything and we're investigating everything, but at the same time, we're protecting our early picks."
The Pies, determined to land that big fish, will continue to look to secure Ben Cousins if the AFL approves the former Eagle's re-entry into competition.
Sydney Swan Ryan O'Keefe has also bounded onto the radar and could attract their attention, while the explosive pace of out of favour Bomber Andrew Lovett could prove a possible target.
More trade talk
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Trade week runs from October 6-10, 2008. Please note, no trades are official until paperwork has been accepted by the AFL and formally recognised after 2pm on Friday, October 10.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
