It might be an idea to look at what the most successful team has at the moment and obviously that is Hawthorn. Now whereas most teams want to stock up KPP's for the spine, and gets players who are best in one position, that is not the way at Hawthorn. Sure, they have players who are best in the usual position they play, and some move very little such as Gunston, but they have a good deal of jack-of-all-trades players. Sam Mitchell, Shaun Burgoyne, Matt Suckling, Luke Hodge, Jarryd Roughhead can all play in varying positions while David Hale is a useful forward drifting ruckman. Mitchell, Burgoyne and Hodge are also players who can dominate a position, not just fill it. We have a few players who can swing between one position and another but apart from Robbie Gray most of them are best in the one position.
Maybe it's not just forward planning with draft picks that we need, although that will be important, but forward planning with what we have. For instance, having Ollie Wines or Brad Ebert be able to play a forward role when required. Both can be strong marks and Ebert's problems with field kicking may not translate to goalkicking problems.
It has been mentioned we may throw everything to get Carlisle. I certainly hope not, we have been without first round picks for long enough and are looking at a top 10 this year. If Essendon want to offload Carlisle then I can't see why we would give more than a second rounder for him. I'd like to se as play hardball and come out on op for once.