Collingwood AFL trade period: Why Magpies focus on draft picks over players was a good move

There is an illogical view that Collingwood’s failure to add senior players of note, as the 2025 premiers did and Hawthorn attempted, was a setback for a club that is hurtling towards a demographic cliff face.

The Magpies did not acquire anyone during the trade period, besides the cheap recruitment of Jack Buller from the Swans as a key forward/second ruck option, as their tilt at snaring North Melbourne skipper Jy Simpkin foundered on the rock of their unwillingness to cough up first-round draft choices.

That reluctance to part with even one first-round pick (North demanded two firsts) for Simpkin contrasted with the trade periods of 2023 and 2024, when the Pies gave up future first-rounders for Lachie Schultz and then Dan Houston.

Unsurprisingly, the Schultz and Houston deals were lar