Sure, but we're not talking about bringing in someone of average quality.
Hopper is a terrific young footballer who is probably being played a little out of position at the moment, given the strength of GWS' midfield. He was widely regarded as one of the best in the 2015 draft pool, and at 20 years of age you'd expect him to have a long career ahead of him.
Whitfield is probably a little unheralded given the quality around him also. He's probably not projecting to become a superstar but rather an outstanding footballer out on the wing, who has already played a fair bit of very good football. He's obviously had a minor blip recently, but at 22/23 you'd expect he too has a long future ahead of him.
I'll put it this way, if I was given the option of Shiel or Hopper + a late 1st rounder, I'd take Shiel everyday of the week. If Shiel was on the table for pick #3, I would have no problem with making that trade.
A first round pick isn't 'change'.
Yeah change wasn't the right word, more so to my example above, a late 1st rounder could net us a decent player but going back to my point (and this is imo, not trying to state it as fact) 1 elite player > 1 very good player + 1 decent player
It may not eventuate, but trading our 2018 first makes a lot of sense to me right now.
If it allows us to bring in say Hopper + another first round pick this year, I think that's a great result.
For the record I don't want to trade our first this year, but we shouldn't completely rule it out if we benefit for doing so.
I'd try and negotiate that 3 way trade I suggested with Adelaide. We get Hopper + Crows 2nd, Crows get Gibbs + our 3rd, GWS get Crows 1st.
If we were going to trade the 2018 1st, then it should be for no less than a top 7 pick imo.