GENERAL manager of player personnel and strategy Todd Viney says the departure of Colin Sylvia as an unrestricted free agent will create some flexibility and opportunities in the upcoming trade period.

Sylvia told Melbourne on Thursday that he was headed to Fremantle, after 157 matches with the Demons from 2004-13.

Melbourne is set to gain some form of compensation for his departure and Viney said it could open up some new scenarios for the Dees.

“This is the new modern era of free agency and restricted free agency period. It’s something the players were keen to introduce to the game to give some movement to players, so Col’s been a good servant of our club,” Viney told melbournefc.com.au.

“He’s been at the club for a long period of time, and he hasn’t tasted the success that he would’ve liked, so that’s just the system these days and we wish him all the best and thank him for his contribution to the club.

“Now that’s going to give us an opportunity to get a pick and some compensation for him. Where that is, we don’t know yet, but it could be in the 20s, attached to our second round pick, but we’ll have to wait and see where that ends up being.

“That’s going to be a valuable pick in the draft or as a trade, bargaining chip to attract some other talent to the club. We’ll be excited about that possibility of what that pick might bring in.”

With free agency set to officially start on Friday, Viney said he expects several deals to happen on the opening day.

“I think there will probably be a couple of deals that will be put to bed tomorrow, so until it happens, you don’t know,” he said.

“You certainly hear lots of whispers at this time of the year and most of the clubs have been sussing each other out over the last three or four weeks anyway, just about where they are with their lists and where they’re looking to improve their lists.

“There’s been some discussions already and a lot of those negotiations will be well advanced and I think quite possibly tomorrow, there could be two or three free agents committed to new clubs.

“Colin will be one of those, but until it’s done and dusted, we’ll just have to wait and see.”

But Viney said the Demons were still weighing up their options in relation to acquiring players via free agency.

“We’ll still monitor that pretty closely, the free agency,” he said.

“There probably hasn’t been a lot who we thought might help us at this given time, but there’s still a couple of things we’re looking at there, but we’ll just have to wait and see what that looks like in the next couple of days.”

However, Viney said the Demons were set to be active in the upcoming trade period.

“We finished 17^th on the table last year, so we’ve got a lot of improvement to build to our list, so we’ll be actively looking at guys we’ve earmarked throughout the year and we’ll be speaking to the clubs about, once the trade week starts,” he said.

“There is a speed dating day on the first day, when you get out to all of the clubs, but … a lot of conversations have already taken place. It’ll just be a little bit more of finding out exactly where they’re at.

“All the argy-bargy and negotiation will take place, but hopefully we can bring in a couple of players.”

Viney said Melbourne’s second selection was still potentially up for trade.  

“It’s a super attractive pick, so there’s been quite a bit of interest in that and we’ve had quite a bit of discussions with clubs,” he said.

“We rate that pick really highly, so won’t be trading away lightly. Either way, if it’s on the table, certainly [we’ll look at doing a deal], but we won’t be giving it away for a bag of chips.

“But it’ll be a good player or good players and that’ll help, otherwise we’ll go to the draft and add some exciting talent to add to the young guys we’ve already drafted.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys that need to develop and get the opportunity to play, so hopefully that’ll get under way in the pre-season and those guys can maximise their potential.”  

Viney said the Demons would leave no stone unturned in their pursuit to bring talented youngsters to the club.

“We’ve had quite a few interviews and we’ve been pretty advanced this year on where we were last year,” he said.

“We’ve interviewed some of those guys and particularly those guys who we think we’ve got in the pick two mix.

“This is probably the third or fourth time we’ve spoken to them, so we’ve got a really good handle on some of the personalities, but it’s good to speak some of the guys we haven’t seen as much.”