Hawthorn forward Chad Wingard has issued an emphatic response to rumours suggesting he would be traded out of the club in exchange for draft picks, suggesting it is not "the right way to succeed".
Wingard joined the Hawks at the end of the 2018 season, but his arrival at the club has coincided with a slide down the ladder over the last three seasons.
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Due to Hawthorn's decline from its premiership glory days, Wingard is one of a number of veteran players whose names have been thrown up in trade rumours, a list that has even included Brownlow Medallist Tom Mitchell.
Speaking on Hawthorn's Golden Years podcast, Wingard suggested that going exclusively to the draft could damage the rich culture the Hawks had built.
"You can't just trade a lot of players out and go to the draft. I don't think that's the right way to succeed," he said.
"You still need a good culture, you still need guys who can drive good standards on and off the field, and as long as you have got guys that can do that then you create and probably fast-track the younger guys to have a better standard and get their development up and running."
The 27-year-old stressed that his conversations with the club did not suggest that he would be offloaded in the near future.
"[Trade rumours] would frustrate me if it was coming from the club, but as far as what my management has been saying, and the conversations I have been having with the club, (they) have been very positive," he said.
"I do feel valued, and they do see me as part of their future going forward, and that's enough for me to not even care about the outside noise. And I never did really care about it because the media spin whatever they want to get a story."
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