Honestly it's not just about who we are willing to trade but what currency those players have, who will pay for them and what we have in excess.
What we have in excess is half back flankers, young midfielders and small or underperforming forwards.
We are best suited to trading out half back flankers, our young mids are our investment in the future and our underperforming forwards have no value.
Those that have most value in other clubs eyes would be Steven, Armitage, Gilbert, Stanley and Gwilt.
The most speculative of those would be Stanley and the easiest for us to lose would be Gilbert, given the position he plays, the easiest to place would be Armitage and the most desired would be Steven, giving us the best return.
We won't get anything for our underperforming forwards.
Gilbert is the player with the worst skills that would command a price, the greatest return for the least sacrifice.
I tend to agree with your thoughts.
Here's my take...
You would think that Jack is untouchable.
Armo, Gilbert, Ray, Geary, Simpkin... yes.
If weller comes good, then Curren may be of value.
Stanley... you don't give away KPP's. Let's see how he goes for the rest of the year. You'd only get rid of him if he doesn't improve. At worse he is a great depth player.
It will also come down to who we can draft. even if we get gun KPF, they won't be ready for a few years. So someone like Stanley may be a good transitional KPF. But either way, without Roo we will still be 1 short. Unless you keep Lee at FF and the new KPF at CHF. Mind you, Lee is yet to prove anything, so Stanley becomes more valuable to us.
I'd hate to see Gwilt go. He is one of our best kicks and mature thinker. But for a top 20? Yeah in a heartbeat.
But like you say, it comes down to what we have and what others need... supply and demand.
One thing you can bet your house on is that GCS and GWS will want to start marching up the ladder asap and will be looking for mature players.
And as much as I hate the idea, Melb will probably get another priority. Not that they deserve it.
Bottom line: As far as I am concerned, the club can do what it takes to secure the best possible talent. I want us to be a club that wins a flag. If that means hard decisions then so be it. we need elite skills. I don't care how nice a player is and will thank them for their service etc, but in the end if we want the big one, then we need to remove the B and C graders where possible.