It is all about timing. Bolton, Baker and Rioli are not worth as much to us at the moment as the worth they represent to other teams.
Just like Freo’s first rounders are worth more to us than they are worth to them. Business.
Bolton represents the most discrepancy in value because he is demonstrably poor in the area of on-field leadership and example.
At the moment he is absolutely wasted in a non-challenging phase.
Personally, I'm not much interested in maximising the worth of our players for other teams.
The discussion lies in whether the draft picks, or the players, are of more value for us.
It is probably a useless hypothetical really.
Do you just say 'Firesale', and send them all off for whatever draft picks we can get? Or do you assess it on a case by case basis?
I think the 'ruthless' notion could easily conflate with 'careless'. There's no sense in trading players if you're not being appropriately compensated. Therein lies the conversation.
If someone offers two top ten picks for Rioli, that becomes a different discussion to whether or not you seek to trade Rioli just to reset the list. Doing that, most likely you could hope to get 1 top ten pick for him (maybe some trading of junk). Is that pick better value than he is? Then you have the middling deals that might confuse the issue. What if you were offered two picks in the teens (frequently draft busts)?
Then if you did trade Rioli, and Baker also asks to leave, how do you navigate that? Losing a stack of leadership in Rioli means that Baker's value to us is higher.
Then you have Bolton, who does not want to leave and is contracted. His value is also very difficult to assess after a year he has been predominantly played out of position. He's probably dropped in potential trade value this season, but not in value to us. I agree the leadership is not as significant a factor, but on field competitiveness is.
Coach and club would struggle to sail through another year or two like this one.