GREATER Western Sydney is hoping to head into the trade and draft period armed with first and second-round compensation picks for departing free agents Zac Williams and Aidan Corr.
Williams will leave to join Carlton while Corr is headed to North Melbourne. The Giants can match offers and force trades for the pair but will instead take the compensation on offer from the AFL.
They are hoping that means they accrue pick No.9 for Williams and No.29 for Corr to give them a strong hand of selections.
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"From our point of view there's no guarantees for us knowing what we're going to get. The AFL is not coming to come out and tell us now and the speculation around the money that's been bandied around probably gives us an indication," Giants recruiting manager Adrian Caruso told AFL.com.au's Road to the Draft podcast.
"The indication would be hopefully we get a first-rounder and a second-rounder for Zac and Aidan but it doesn't really change our strategy right now. It's neither here nor there in our calculations as a recruiting team because whatever the compensation is, it is.
"You'd obviously love higher picks than lower picks but right now we're probably not speculating too much on what it's going to be."
The Giants are in for a busy off-season, with the club losing youngster Jackson Hately after he made a request to be traded to Adelaide, and fellow second-year midfielders Jye Caldwell and Xavier O'Halloran consider their options.
Star forward Jeremy Cameron is also unsigned for next year as he negotiates with the Giants.
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Caruso said the trio were all in constant discussions with football and list manager Jason McCartney, who handles the club's contracts.
"We know those players are all going through a challenging time trying to decide on their futures and we understand the uniqueness of this year. It's something as a club we've had to deal with over the past few years, so it's not something that's uncommon to us," he said.
"From my point of view as recruiting manager and as a recruiting team we're just heavily focused on the draft and trying to gather as much information as we can on the kids we're going to be picking."
Despite the interruptions of this season, Victoria's draftees not taking the field due to the COVID-19 outbreak and regular seasons modified in other states, Caruso said this year's crop had something for all clubs.
"I like the diversity. It's not a midfield heavy draft, but there's good mids. There's definitely some good tall forwards and tall backs, and then there's good mediums," he said.
"It's probably going to be a needs based draft. The way I look at the depth, there's probably 15 to 20 kids who have separated themselves from the rest at the moment."
