Giants need substance: Bartel
Comment: Why is everyone so scared of GWS?
'It drives me nuts': GWS boss considers quitting

COLLINGWOOD will look closely at Greater Western Sydney's list this year in anticipation that more quality players will need to be offloaded to accommodate the Giants' new Academy crop.

The Magpies snared gun midfielder Adam Treloar from the Giants last year and this week appointed former GWS football manager Graeme Allan in a new role outside the football department. 

Collingwood football manager Neil Balme said it was "the natural way" that more Giants youngsters would become available as the club seeks to manage its salary cap with more than 20 first-round draft picks on its list. 

"(They) have got an enormous bank of very, very talented players … and a fair few of them aren't going to get an opportunity or aren't getting a game," Balme said on Thursday morning. 

"We'll be looking very closely at Greater Western Sydney's kids and saying are there any others that are going to fall out … it'll be the natural way.

Why is everyone so scared of the Giants?

"They've got 23 first-round draft picks in their squad and you can only pick 22 each week, so even the [first-round] draft picks aren't all going to get a game."

The Giants have 22 players on their list who were recruited with first-round draft picks and a further eight – many rated by recruiters as first-round talent – who arrived via concessions outside the first round. 

Balme, who was speaking at the annual Peter Mac Cup Breakfast, said every club would be looking at those GWS players who became available at the end of this season. 

He said the Giants' high turnover at the end of last year, which included trades involving Treloar and first-round draft picks Liam Sumner and Lachie Plowman, showed the club needed to let players go.

"(At the end of 2015) they needed to turn some over because of the new zone kids that were coming in," Balme said. 

"Even when Adam Treloar became available, it was because Greater Western Sydney couldn't fit him in.

"We were lucky enough to get him to come to our club, but every other club was interested."

 

Balme said the AFL industry needed to become more accustomed to players leaving their clubs in a market that was becoming more open, saying it was not necessarily a sign of disloyalty if players moved.