Don't forget some of the "obvious" choices for delisting are contracted until next year - King, Schulz & McMahon
. You can only get rid of them if you can find another stupid enough to take them off our hands.
You also need to take into account the number and sort of draft picks we'll have. The outs need to balance the ins. I think this reason may save two oldies (Richo and Cuz) for another year.
So assuming we finish last or near to with 4 wins or less that will give us picks something like 2, 18, 19, 35, 51, etc.
RetireesBowden, Johnson, Simmonds, Brown, Polak
Delistings/tradesJON, Pettifer, Silvester (r)
If we could get another sub-pick 50 via a trade for JON or Schulz you'd take it in a heartbeat.
With Joel retiring we'll only have only one veteran left (Richo) so one of our rookie will be able to be automatically promoted at the start of 2010 without the need for a long-term injury. Hence I would leave Nahas and Browne as rookies for another year.
So all up we could aim to have say 6 picks within the first 51 or so of the National draft, the first PSD pick + 3 more rookies (7 rookies allowed in total + 1 veteran).
Finish with 4 wins next year and you do that same again with the likes of King, McMahon, etc who survived this year only due to their contract. Trade an excess player to GC for a pick. Cuz and Richo will retire and we'll have another 5 picks in the top 50 - 1, 7, 26, 30ish (GC trade), 43 say. So the new coach goes into his second year (2011) with Newman our oldest player at 28 and the vast majority of the list b/w 18-25 y.o and no age gaps. Use these early picks in next two drafts to fix the remaining structure of our side and list (a couple of classy big key forwards and ballwinners in the midfield) and we'll be fine by 2012-13 onwards.