AN EYE to the present, a stronghold on the future.

After an impressive run of form through the 2020 season, the key objective of Carlton’s AFLW sign and trade period will be locking in talent.

According to Women’s Football List Manager Brett Munro, the key to building on last season’s success will be a combination of stability and top-end recruits.

“First of all, we want to lock in the majority of our talent where we can,” Munro said.

“We hope to have the remaining girls all contracted hopefully by the end of the week, and a number of those we’re hoping to have the advantage of be able to contract them for two years.

“[Our aim] is to sure up our position as a list for not only 2021 but for 2022 and beyond.”

The first day of trade saw the Blues strengthen their draft position, receiving pick No. 15 overall pick (No.9 in the Victorian pool) in a trade that saw Sarah Hosking become a Tiger.

Carlton also moved up the order when it secured pick No.36 from St Kilda in a trade for defender Jayde Van Dyk and pick No. 42.

Now with two picks within the top 10 of the Victorian pool, Munro is certain the Blues will be able secure some young talent should the picks be retained in the remaining trade window.

“You’re always looking to get a little better,” he said.

“You’re compelled to have three picks at the draft, so in a lot of ways what you’re trying to do is just improve your position with your drafts picks so that you can get access to as good a talent as you can possibly bring in.

“That talent most of the time is just looking at the best player rather than bolstering a position.”

With the under-18s competition on hold in 2020, the job of recruiters to identify that talent becomes more challenging.

“We’d like to see more of them, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.

“I’m fortunate that I was on the All-Australian committee for the under-18s championships last year, so I saw a lot of the top-end bottom-agers play in those tournaments.

“We’ll be talking to them, interviewing players that we think will be around our pick once the draft order has settled and looking back through their performances in their last two years.”