CHRIS Yarran and Troy Menzel were among the most gifted players at Carlton, a club that is hardly awash with top-end talent.

Yarran and Menzel were — and remain — highly skilled footballers capable of turning a game. But they also had obvious warts that the Bolton Blues were no longer willing to tolerate.

Yarran carried both injury concerns and off-field challenges. Menzel, who is just 21, had developed a reputation for laziness on the training track and the high hopes that accompanied his first two seasons had turned to exasperation by 2015.

As we enter Round 9, neither Yarran nor Menzel have played a single senior game for their new clubs — a scenario that is almost as surprising as Carlton’s 4-4 win-loss record. Yarran is dealing with a persistent calf problem and personal difficulties. Menzel has been banished to the SANFL until his training and output improves.

Round 18

The Blues have undergone both a cultural change and a radical list renovation. They traded Yarran, Menzel and Lachie Henderson to clubs that were closer to premiership contention in Richmond, Adelaide and Geelong.

Troy Menzel is yet to play a senior game for Adelaide. Picture: Colleen Petch. Source: News Corp Australia

If these calls seem logical and easy today, they also contained significant risks for the vendor.

The Blues had been pilloried by fans and media for losing Eddie Betts, Jarrad Waite and even Jeff Garlett during the Malthouse years, and for acquiring Liam Jones from the Bulldogs and an underwhelming Kristian Jaksch from the Giants. Buying a key forward from the Bulldogs back then was akin to recruiting downhill skiers from Egypt.

There were plenty of observers who wondered about the wisdom of further denuding this team of mature talent. North and the Crows had improved the output of Betts and Waite and the Demons had — at least initially — revived Garlett’s career.

Would Yarran, Menzel and Henderson embarrass the Blues, as Betts and Waite had?

It is always dangerous to make early judgments on trades, which can twist and turn like the plot of ‘Games of Thrones’. Yarran and Menzel are too talented to be written off after nine games. The Tigers and Crows remain optimistic that their recruits will deliver in time. Let’s hope they do.

But what can be asserted is that, whatever Yarran, Menzel and Henderson achieve this year and beyond, the Blues are well in the black on their 2015 trading.

Sam Kerridge was involved in a deal for Troy Menzel. Source: Getty Images

Menzel, in particular, has brought a tidy profit for 2016. He was traded for Adelaide’s pick No. 28 and Sam Kerridge. At first glance, this seemed to be a questionable return for a player of Menzel’s talent.

The Blues turned that pick 28 into four Giants whom their list manager and prodigal son Stephen Silvagni knew well: Lachie Plowman, Liam Sumner, Andrew Phillips and Jed Lamb.

Again, we shouldn’t make the early crow on these recruits, but the first furlong travelled by the ex-GWS quartet has been encouraging. Plowman and Sumner seem probable 100-plus gamers, Phillips fills an important hole in the ruck and Lamb, at the least, provides depth.

Kerridge is a regular and while he will never display Bryce Gibbs’ composure or disposal skills, he can win the ball.

Henderson is steadily improving at Geelong, where he might become a grand final or premiership player by season’s end.

Brendon Bolton with Carlton list manager Stephen Silvagni. Picture: Michael Klein. Source: News Corp Australia

But, from Carlton’s perspective, Henderson did not want to play for the club and the Blues gained the maximum draft return possible for him by exploiting the introduction of future picks.

They received Geelong’s first pick for 2016 and traded it for GWS’s first choice last year. In short, that means Carlton ended up with pick No. 8 — and Harry McKay — rather than what will probably be pick No. 15-18 this year, due to Geelong’s anticipated high position on the ladder.

Yarran delivered the Blues pick No. 23 (including the academy players), which became a quick midfielder, David Cuningham. The draftee is what Donald Rumsfeld would call a known unknown; give it a few years and we’ll have some idea of what Cuningham can do.

Carlton’s list remains one of the weakest in the competition, when you consider the Blues have been fielding experienced teams, based on age and average games. The road ahead will be bumpy, as veterans leave and are replaced by callow kids.

That said, one can only play the cards you’ve got. In jettisoning Yarran, Menzel and Henderson, the Blues, unexpectedly, have improved their hand.