The Geoff Walsh review findings could be seen on the Collingwood whiteboard.

It was a cold night in August 2017, and a television news crew got lucky when the board room blinds were opened, revealing the full list of Walsh’s key recommendations.

There was the big call to extend Nathan Buckley’s coaching contract, more investment in the Magpies’ development program, and a desire to improve the team’s foot skills and goal kicking.

But there was also the ticking time bomb Walsh identified in Collingwood’s books.

As much as anything, Walsh said the club must “review and repair” the Total Player Payments’ model after topping up on recruits Daniel Wells and Chris Mayne under former football manager Graeme Allan.

The moves left the club’s salary cap dangerously bloated and reliant on back-ending their stars’ contracts.

It was an iceberg the Collingwood ship would not officially hit for another three years when the club finally sent the lifeboats overboard, shot up the flares and made bold calls to punt Adam Treloar, Jaidyn Stephenson and Tom Phillips against their wishes.

Footy analysts lined up to call it the most disastrous trade period in recent memory as the Magpies made a $1.6 million-plus salary dump for some paltry trade returns.

Stephenson and Atu Bosenavulagi were moved on to North Melbourne for picks 26 and 33, but those two selections went with Treloar to the kennel in exchange for 16 and a future-second.

Phillips went for pick 65.

Even worse, Collingwood had to pay about $300,000 of Treloar’s $900,000-a-year salary which had been heavily back-ended as the Dogs had the Magpies over a barrel in last-minute trade talks.

Treloar didn’t want to go to Gold Coast, who also had an interest, while St Kilda had already committed to Adelaide’s Brad Crouch, leaving the Dogs one-out at the trade table with Collingwood.

Then in another blow, Collingwood handed over its first-round pick in the following year’s draft (eventually pick two) to Greater Western Sydney for picks 24 and 30, in one of the most lopsided pick swaps ever struck.

While the Magpies would never have imagined crashing to second-last spot on the ladder the following year, the club was smashed for the 2020 fire sale which sent shockwaves through the club and its fan base.

It ruined relationships, plunged the Magpies into crisis mode, and led to Buckley and former list manager Ned Guy departing the club last season.

This year, Buckley said he was still unable to speak to Treloar about the difficult period despite making several attempts. Treloar never took the call.

The star midfielder, who was lauded for his openness throughout his time in black and white, was completely blindsided and deeply hurt by his forced departure.

Why him? Controversially, the club questioned whether he could cope with his partner, Kim Ravillion, and daughter, Georgie, living in Queensland for her Super Netball career with the Firebirds, while he played footy in Melbourne.

In a way, it brought into question Treloar’s mental health, and history will show his family situation has not been a problem at all for his career at the kennel.

Talk back lines went into meltdown over the Treloar deal, while Buckley defended the club’s right to “have an assessment of that (family situation) given our knowledge of Adam and the experiences we’ve shared since he came to the club”.

But as former president Eddie McGuire said, as harsh and unexpected as the calls seemed at the time, the club always thought the “necessary” salary cap cuts would pay dividends down the track.

And six rounds out from the 2022 finals series, the Collingwood script has seemingly flipped much quicker than anyone would have expected.

Against Adelaide on Saturday, the Magpies will shoot for their eighth-straight win under new coach Craig McRae, while circling several stars in this year’s trade period with some room to move in the overhauled salary cap.

With McRae heading up a new culture and Graham Wright living up to his reputation as one of the smartest back room men in football, it can be argued the same club which dumped Treloar and Stephenson are back in an advantageous position as they strongly consider adding Daniel McStay (Brisbane) as well as GWS Giants’ trio Bobby Hill, Tanner Bruhn, and potentially, Tim Taranto.

In the meantime, they have used some of the salary cap space to snare Western Bulldogs’ ballwinner Patrick Lipinski and injured tall Nathan Kreuger, and sealed a deal with Gold Coast to ensure they had loaded up on enough points to welcome first-year sensation Nick Daicos.

Meanwhile, the theory goes that Finlay Macrae and Caleb Poulter will be ready to take big steps into the midfield next year as they hit their third season.

Strong-marking forward Oliver Henry looks a star, and has gone past Stephenson, while raging bull McCreery is already the Magpies’ top tackler.

If the 2020 trade period was a thunderstorm, perhaps the first rays of sunshine have since begun to poke through the dark clouds.

But there remains a big watch.

Landing Taranto may depend on whether either Jordan De Goey or Brodie Grundy depart at season’s end, as huge calls loom on their futures.

Taranto for De Goey is like-for-like without any of the behavioural worry, while Collingwood would again have to pick up a big chunk of the tab if Grundy departs, after locking in a whopping $950,000-a-year deal which still has five years to run.

They are big bold moves, but Collingwood has bitten the bullet before.

HOW DID THEY GET HERE?

As Walsh noted in the 2017 review, the salary cap cracks had already begun to show as the TPP model buckled under the weight of another wave of recruits.

When Mayne struggled to fire a shot in his first season at Collingwood after signing a $2 million four-year deal, Buckley said “a few things happened in there that weren’t ideal” because ”our director of footy was flipping around”.

Wells, meanwhile, played only 15 games in three years due to injury.

But just as the crossroads loomed from a salary cap perspective, things began to click on-field under Buckley and gun assistant Justin Longmuir as the Magpies surged, a little unexpectedly, into the Grand Final.

Stephenson won the Rising Star award amid an astonishing 38-goal season and Grundy was All-Australian as the Magpies fell one extraordinary Dom Sheed boundary-line goal from a remarkable premiership.

So, with the salary cap now at bursting point, another sliding doors moment appeared.

Brisbane’s Dayne Beams stunned the Lions to request a trade back to Collingwood on about $500,000 a year, in exchange for two first-round picks.

Premiership Bulldog Jordan Roughead arrived as well on a bargain-basement arrangement, and the Magpies loaded up again for a flag, but fell four points short of GWS Giants at a rain-soaked MCG in the 2019 preliminary final.

Still thought to be in the premiership window the following season, Collingwood pulled off an upset win over West Coast in Perth in the elimination final at the end of a long year in the COVID-19 hub, but got pummelled by Geelong by 68 points the following week in the semi-final.

That is when the salary cap alarm Walsh sounded three years earlier finally started blaring down the halls at Olympic Park.

Could Collingwood challenge again under Buckley in 2021? The red lights were flashing.

They thought not, and called emergency meetings about the list.

Some big-name star players were going to cop it in the neck, whether they were contracted or not, in one of football’s most dramatic list culls.

Against their wishes, favourite son Treloar, third-year goal kicker Stephenson and wingman Phillips were shipped off to rival clubs to get Collingwood back under the cap.

The heavily back-ended payments stopped and there was a plan to reposition the books to target new players in 2021 and 2022.

This was not a rebuild, the club said, but a refurb.

With Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom, Jeremy Howe, Taylor Adams and Darcy Moore at the core, Collingwood wanted to refresh the list around these five key pillars to bounce back into finals mode in a few years, while Pendlebury and Co were still around.

And under McRae, they are back on the verge of September action after only just one season.

BETTER OFF OR NOT?

Collingwood’s decision was to pull the ripcord on the bloated cap, before the club bottomed out.

Stephenson, 23, has struggled to have any impact in his two seasons at the Kangas, and was savaged for his lack of competitiveness and physicality by respected former St Kilda and Fremantle coach Ross Lyon on Sunday.

“He is a non-competitor,” Lyon said on Triple M. “He physically doesn’t compete whether it was at Collingwood or at North Melbourne.

“He causes issues off the field and he is getting overpaid.”

Treloar, 29, has been impressive in his two years at the kennel, bouncing back from a poor 10-possession semi-final against Brisbane Lions to kick three goals in the Grand Final loss to Melbourne last year.

This season, he has moved to half back late in the year, averaging 27 possessions across 16 games. He is a star, Treloar, and Collingwood will help pay his wage for three more years.

Where Collingwood made a big blue was in its messaging. The Magpies were trying to pretend like the club wasn’t under enormous salary cap pressure, perhaps to try and hold on to some trade-time leverage.

Guy said at the conclusion of the trade period: “It is a bit of a beat-up the salary cap issues.” Added Walsh: “That (cap trouble) has been hugely exaggerated.”

But everyone, including rival clubs and footy fans, saw through it. It was all club spin.

Walsh knew it because he was the one who saw the salary cap freight train coming three years earlier when he declared an urgent need for “review and repair” on the TPP model and wrote it up on the wall.

The Magpies had loaded up to win a flag, just fell short in admirable fashion, and then had to make a sharp turn, before the car fell off the cliff edge.

Former president McGuire said Collingwood had been “too good” to players in the past, but that things would change under new footy boss Wright.

Guy did the dirty work in 2020, and left the club last year. He has since taken up a position at the AFL.

McGuire said the 2020 trade period was “untidy”, but would be beneficial in the long run.

“Ned Guy was doing what he was told to do,” McGuire said.

“He was told by the board ‘get it sorted out’ and he and Geoff Walsh got stuck in and did it. It wasn’t pretty in the end, but you know what?

“There’s been plenty of other times when players have walked out of a club.

“I will cop that it’s untidy. Nuance is everything.

“We could’ve gone on with the salary cap. It changed, we pivoted and now we’re looking ahead.”