THE 2022 Continental Tyres Trade Period has come to an end, with Head of List Management Nick Austin provided his thoughts on Carlton's movements.

Following the acquisition of Blake Acres and departure of Will Setterfield, Austin spoke on the position of the Blues' list as it stands while looking ahead to the 2022 NAB AFL Draft.

Here's what he had to say. 

On Blake Acres: 

"It's great to get him in nice and early, he’s certainly going to help our football club.

"It’s a really targeted role on that wing and we had some good conversations with Fremantle, who were fantastic to deal with - as they were last year with Adam [Cerra] - and we were able to facilitate that deal nice and early."

On Will Setterfield: 

"We walked in hopeful to retain Will – but the reality is with footy these days, Essendon came in with a level that we weren’t prepared to go to and that’s footy. Will goes with our blessing and he’s given it everything for four years: we wish him all the best with his future."

On Paddy Dow:

"We had some really good conversations with Paddy and his management towards the back end of the season, we decided to go and explore his options and see if there was a club that was going to give him an opportunity.

"He’s really keen to fight for his spot and work hard and it’s a great opportunity for him. There are some roles within our midfield and the challenge is there for him to get to work and fight for that spot."

On Ed Curnow: 

"We’re working through it with his management right now. Ed will be at Carlton: it’s just if he’s going to be on the primary list or the rookie list but we’re working through those options."

On the midfield depth at Carlton: 

"We’re excited about our midfield depth. We’ve got five bonafide midfielders that carried the load last year and we had some injuries which presented an opportunity.

"We were really excited by what we saw from Sam Docherty in that role late in the year, Jack Carroll is another one we want to get some game time into, Blake himself has played some inside midfield at St Kilda especially.

"We feel like there are guys there, as well as players who missed a lot of footy last year. Dave Cuningham will be ready to go for day one of pre-season, Jack Martin, Zac Fisher, we feel like there’s options to go through that midfield group and the competition for spots is going to be on which is exciting." 

On another quiet trade period: 

"We really want to back our list in and back our talent in. We’ve got a game plan there that the Club believes in and the direction that we’re going.

"A quiet trade period, we’ve been doing that for a few years and to keep going back to that well does destabilise you a little bit. There’s no secret that retention was a big focus for us, Harry [McKay] and Charlie [Curnow], taking them off the free agency table ahead of time was really important.

"We targeted Blake Acres in that wing role from a fair way out and to tick that off, we think we’ve added to our group and keep building on what was created last year."

On the upcoming draft: 

"We’re really excited, not just for the first round but all of them. We’re going to take four picks to the draft which is fantastic for our footy club.

"We want to rejuvenate the list and build some depth and the best way to do that is through the draft, so we’re excited. Four picks is exciting, we’ve got a good hand at the moment with a pick in every round plus some futures, so we’ll see where that takes us.

"There will be some opportunities to move up and there will be a lot of to-ing and fro-ing before the night but particularly on the night, there will be some chances to improve our hand again. 

"I think all clubs will let the dust settle now and we’ll see the lay of the land in terms of picks and where everyone wants to position themselves, not only for this year but for next year’s draft.

"We’ve been vocal, we want to try and get another pick if we can between that 10 and 29. If we can move 10 up for the right deal, but ideally we’re in a good spot if we stay at 10: we think we’ll get a really exciting player there for the future of our Club, so we feel like we’re in a great spot for the draft."