Yep because by trading in a player, you're actually just throwing away your pick. And not getting anything in return.
SOS and the gang would only trade our first rounder if it meant we were getting something better than he expects pick #4-7 to become.
When we were on the bottom back in 07, we traded picks #3, #20 and Josh Kennedy (taken at pick #4) for Judd. While getting Judd was a necessity to boost memberships and hope, in the long run, it didn't get us to where we wanted to be. Reason being was that we were too far away that Judd was not going to carry us to a flag.
We are in a similar situation now. We're still too far away to go giving up our top picks. When we start to climb up the ladder, then we can entice quality players from other clubs and our first round pick will be outside the top 10 so it won't cost us as much. Let's go after the big fish when we are contenders and they will be the final pieces to the puzzle.
We really need to learn from our mistakes, we can't take ourselves out of the first round of the draft in the hope that trades are going to pay off. Marchbank and JOM have been injury plagued. So we try and get them for a combo of second round picks and current players or we walk away.
It's no wonder the Carlton hierarchy have tried to go with band aid, quick as possible solutions to our problems. Our supporter base is far too impatient. SOS and Bolton aren't going to cave in though. Club has already stated that our first round pick is off the table.