CONSIDERING the exits of Chris Judd and Ben Cousins have reduced their three midfield tenors to one, West Coast should seriously consider letting the surviving soloist, Daniel Kerr, lend his voice to another troupe.

They shouldn't sell him to change the club's player culture, or to weed out the badly behaved. Indiscretions of Kerr's recent past are not the reason the Eagles should contemplate a second blockbuster â€" "The Kerr Dismissal" â€" on the heels of "The Judd Defection".

Whereas Judd was uncontracted and went home against their wishes, the Eagles are in a position to control a Kerr trade, subject to his agreement. Contrary to misinformed speculation, Kerr is contracted for 2009. This is significant, for it gives the Eagles the whip hand in any negotiations with another club. They don't have to trade unless the deal is right.

Two first-round draft picks ought to be the minimum. I'd be surprised if they couldn't obtain a very high return from a Melbourne club and the industry talk has long been that Kerr is amenable to a shift in the right circumstances (read the right club and contract).

Moreover, if Kerr really is interested in a move east, better to trade him while he's contracted than when he's not.

St Kilda, Collingwood and Hawthorn would be the ideal clubs for Kerr in the event he leaves. Carlton might be thrown in the mix, simply because of Kerr's friendship with Judd, but it's questionable whether the Blues, with a younger profile, tick the demographic boxes.

The suggestion that Kerr be sold after Judd and Cousins have gone might strike some as absurd â€" why weaken a declining empire further?

Actually, the decline and fall of the empire is precisely why Kerr represents such a unique opportunity for the Eagles: He's a blue-chip asset that can land them the draft picks they need to launch another crack at a flag.

Kerr turns 25 next month and should have at least three years of high-voltage football left. West Coast is in the throes of a rebuild. The club is sober and realistic about where it stands, which right now, is in the bottom four.

The draft system doesn't allow a hegemony, not even for a West Aussie club as resource-rich as the Pilbara. Having been gutted by the loss of Judd and Cousins, the Eagles have less to lose by losing Kerr, because he won't be the difference between winning and losing a flag over the next few years.

Why not relocate resources from the grim present to the rosier future, post 2010, when the four players from inside the draft's top 22 the club recruited in 2007 (three of them part of the Judd compensation) will be entering their prime years?

Kerr's prime years are worth more to a contending team than the rebuilding Eagles over the next few years.

Another relevant subplot: some of the draft's best and brightest prospects are West Australian teens.

There also is a cloud on the horizon that the Eagles should bear in mind: the upheaval caused by the new Gold Coast team. The introduction of the Gold Coast, followed by Western Sydney, will be a severe drain on the talent pool in 2009, 2010 and beyond. Indeed, 2010, will not be a good year to be in the ladder's lower reaches, given that the AFL's new Queensland pet will have the lions' share, so to speak, of the early picks. Better to be proactive and replenish the weakened playing stocks now rather than in 2010, when the market will be crowded with clubs desperately trying to offload Fred the half-back flanker for a hand in the draft.

Let's consider the prospective suitors for Kerr. St Kilda has class in the midfield, but little zip. Kerr fixes that hole.

Hawthorn, also with more midfield turtles than hares, would be nearly complete with Kerr, though, given the prospective pay packets of Buddy Franklin and Luke Hodge, it wouldn't find it easy to accommodate Kerr's salary of $600,000 or more.

Collingwood ticks many boxes, except that it has a vexed history of dealing with Michael Malthouse's old club. Essendon was in the market for Judd, and still lacks a major midfield weapon. Other clubs, doubtless, would have their hand up. Judd and Kerr were leading men in West Coast's third premiership. They can be instrumental in the fourth flag if West Coast is brave enough to seize, not the day, but the future.