The more I look at it the more I think we should forget about pick 1 and try and work out a trade for GWS pick 10. If we ended up with picks 3, 10, 22 we would be in a fantastic position to set our midfield up for the next 10 years.
Here's the thing about that though. Chances are we'll have picks around or under 10 every year for the next few years, and every year there are generally a plethora of good midfield options available around those picks, so we'll likely have ample opportunities to build that future midfield over the next few years drafts, not to mention through trading and free agency.
On the other hand, the opportunity to get a Tom Boyd, a potential and likely "franchise key forward", who you can build your whole team around, generally comes around very rarely (particularly one that compliments your other forward options as perfectly as Boyd looks like he will for us), unless you just suck balls year after year after year.
About half of the "Tom Boyds" haven't even really been available to the other clubs in the past dozen or so years, as so many of them have been linked to a particular club through the F/S rule (ie. Johnathan Brown, Travis Cloke, Tom Hawkins and most recently Joe Daniher- who were all apparently top 5 quality at the time they were drafted, with at least Brown, Hawkins and Daniher considered worth taking at 1 or 2 had they not been linked to their clubs through F/S), making it even harder to get your hands on one of them.
The last time we really were in a position to get someone who looked like he would be able to dominate a key forward post and be a very "low risk of failing" was probably when we got Roo and that was almost 13 years ago now. On the other hand, since then, in spite of so much terrible drafting and not many very low picks (at least in recent years) we've been able to add Luke Ball, Brendon Goddard, Nick Dal Santo, Leigh Montagna, David Armitage, Jack Steven, Seb Ross and co. to our midfield and it's likely to be the same again over the coming years.
We're almost certainly going to have ample opportunities to add good quality "mids" over the next few years, through the drafts, trading and free agency, to add to the likes of Steven, Armo, Ross, Newnes, Saunders and hopefully the likes of Wright, Murdoch, Webster and Minchington, but the chance to get someone like Boyd, who looks like he would compliment our forward line superbly and could give us enormous forward line strength over the next decade or so, may not come around again for several more years, so I think he is too close for us to just say "nah, we don't want him, lets aim for pick 10 instead".
You can get good "mids" at almost any time in the first few rounds of the draft (Swan at pick 58, Beams 29, Swallow 43, Sloane 44, Montagna 37, Dal Santo 13, Fyfe 20, Parker 40, Hannebery 30 or so, Stanton 13, Steven 42, Scott Selwood 22, Brad Ebert 13, Dangerfield 10, O'Keefe 56, Redden 25, Shuey 18, Jetta 14, Toby Greene 11, Hrovat 21, Boyd rookie draft, Rockliff PSD, Zorko 34, etc) , but you won't find too many Tom Boyd's floating around anywhere but at the very top of the draft, or through the F/S rule, so if you have an opening for one of them and you have a legit opportunity to get them, without having to sell the farm to do so, I think you just do it every time without hesitating and throw a party to celebrate afterwards.
And don't forget, if GWS's pick 10 is on the table as well as pick one, there is no reason that we couldn't get both picks one and 10, if we were prepared to offer up pick 3/4 and someone (or two) else of significant value for them. Then we could end up with 1, 10, 22 and we could get two of those midfield options you spoke of, plus someone who could be our next Roo, or even Plugger.
Maybe we get a Sheed, Dunstan, Crouch, Bontompelli, Taylor, or Freeman at 10 and a Tsitas, Dumont or Hartung at 22, to go with Steven, Armitage, Ross, Newnes, Saunders and hopefully one or all of Wright, Murdoch, Webster and Minchington (who could transition into the midfield) and that is already starting to look like it is a midfield that has a lot of potential and talent.
Or, if we're taking more of a long-term view, with 10 we could get Gardiner (if we rate him that high) and with one, Boyd and with the two of them we could have our "bookends" for the next 12 years and then we could look to add to our midfield with pretty much all our remaining picks this year and with most of our picks or trades next year, with a view to building our next premiership quality list.
Possible 2018 team, if we added Boyd, Gardiner and Tsitas with 1, 10 and 22:
B: Stanley Gardiner Geary
HB: Roberton Simpkin Webster
C: Newnes Ross Wright
HF: Siposs Lee Markworth
F: White Boyd Saad
R: Hickey Armitage Steven
I: Tsitas Murdoch Saunders Minchington
E: Dunell Gwilt Pierce
Add another couple of top-10 quality "mids" to that team over the next couple of years and someone good for CHB in the meantime, not to mention all the others that will be added over that 5 years (through the draft/free agency/trades) and I think that would potentially be a genuine premiership contending team from 2018 or so, after having had a year or two in the finals leading up to that time to get used to finals footy again.