COLLINGWOOD captain Ruby Schleicher’s departure is a real blow to the Magpies' hopes of re-signing other players, according to AFL.com.au's Riley Beveridge.

Schleicher sensationally announced she was leaving the Pies on Monday, with two games left in the side’s season.

Grumblings of player discontent had emanated from the KGM Centre all season, with Schleicher the first domino to fall.

With a large group of players yet to re-sign beyond the end of the season, Beveridge said Schleicher’s refusal to stick around at Collingwood was a worrying sign for the Pies’ chances of retaining other out-of-contract players.

“It’s been heading this way for some time, and I think the Pies were very aware she was heading this way as well,” Beveridge said on The W Show on Thursday.

“The hardest thing to do is get the first player to re-sign. Once you get one, then it starts to snowball, there’s more buy-in amongst the group, you get two, you get three, you get four.

“But at Collingwood, no one wanted to be the first player to re-sign because I think there’s a feeling around the group that everyone’s thinking ‘if I’m the first one to re-sign, who’s to say I’m not the only one to re-sign?’ 

“So even though there was a general awareness at Collingwood that Ruby Schleicher might leave the Pies at the end of the year, I think by announcing it publicly and by doing it in this manner you lose the mirage that she might stay and it becomes hard to entice the next player to stay.

“There are a lot of players out of contract that could still leave this football club. They’re in a similar position now and wondering ‘what are we going to do now that Ruby’s definitely left?’"

Beveridge listed a host of other senior Magpies that remained out of contract, with rival clubs monitoring the situation closely.

"The Western Bulldogs are right at the front of the queue for Tarni White, I think they’re making a very strong and aggressive pursuit for her. She’s been one of Collingwood’s best players across half-back this year,” Beveridge said.

"Brisbane is interested as well and has the lure of going home given she was born and raised in Queensland before she moved to Melbourne for football reasons.

"Adelaide’s asked the question, Sydney’s asked the question, a few others around the competition [have] as well.

"There’s Tarni White, there’s Lauren Butler, there’s Sarah Rowe, there’s Mattea Breed, Bri Davey, Violet Patterson, Imogen Barnett. There are plenty of players at this football club - including the vice-captain as well in Jordy Allen who tried desperately to get to Brisbane last year before Collingwood blocked her attempts. She’s contracted for another year so it’s going to be incredibly hard again for her to move.

"But there are plenty of players at this football club weighing up their future now."

Beveridge also questioned how the trade for Schleicher would play out, given the public nature of her departure left the Magpies with very little leverage.

"Speaking to clubs this week, there’s been a lot of interest around the way Collingwood handled it publicly," Beveridge said.

"A player of [Schleicher’s] ability, 28 years old, coming into the prime of her career, captain of a football club. I think on the open market, and we saw it in the men’s last year with Charlie Curnow, you’re looking at two or three first-round picks for a player of this ilk.

"But I just think if you’re West Coast now, going into the first day of trade period and saying ‘well, you’ve announced it publicly, you’ve said your goodbyes, there’s no threat of her going back to Collingwood now’. 

"So you lose a lot of leverage by making an announcement like this public with two weeks to go in the season. 

"I also think West Coast can sit there on day one of trade period and say ‘well if we’re going to set a value for Ruby Schleicher, you offered her a pretty derisory one-year contract to stay at the football club, so that’s how you value her, so that’s how we value her in a trade’.

"I just think Collingwood’s lost a lot of leverage with the way they’ve handled this situation over the last couple of weeks when it comes to the trade price.

"I think if they’re going to be asking for a first-round pick - maybe West Coast gets there eventually because they want to do it in good faith and they’ve got a very good player on the hook to go to their football club. But I don’t think that’ll be the Eagles’ starting point in negotiations and I don’t think clubs around the competition think that it should be given the way Collingwood’s handled it over the past couple of weeks." 

AFLW analyst Gemma Bastiani also highlighted that due to Schleicher’s standing within the competition, Collingwood wouldn’t be able to walk her to the draft like the Western Bulldogs did with Kristy-Lee Weston-Turner last year as other clubs would jump at the opportunity to sign the two-time All-Australian.