As the AFL Trade period officially commences today, assistant coach Simon Goodwin says the club will focus on retaining its own talent.

Goodwin said while the club will aim to be aggressive at the trade table, he believes the currently playing list has plenty of talent worth investing in.

“We will be aggressive and we will try to improve our list as much as we can,’ Goodwin said.

“This trade period is an opportunity to do just that.             

“However the most important thing for us at the moment is that we try to retain as much talent as we can ourselves.

“We have a wonderful playing group and there is a lot of talent within the group. The great thing about this group is that they have been extremely resilient and we want to keep as much of that talent here at this club. We know the guys here have the talent to get to where we want to go.” he said.

Mark Thompson also backed up Goodwin’s sentiments, stating he believed the players particularly developed this year.

“The players have been absolutely sensational this year,” Thompson said.

“These boys can play. The guys learnt to how to tough it out this year and that is a great thing.”