Collingwood star Taylor Adams has admitted that the trade period was a "really tough time" for the people at the club.
The Magpies endured a tumultuous off-season - dealing Adam Treloar, Jaidyn Stephenson, Tom Phillips and Atu Bosenvulagi during the exchange period to clear salary-cap space.
The player exodus was met with frustration and anger from Pies fans, who at the time threatened to cancel their memberships.
Treloar and Stephenson's departures were particularly messy, with both players expressing disappointment with how their exits were handled by the club.
Reports emerged that coach Nathan Buckley told Treloar that some senior players wanted him out of the club, a story which has been emphatically denied by Buckley.
Adams, who previously played with Treloar at GWS, believes there had been a 'misinterpretation' of the communication between the two parties.
โThere has obviously been confusion along the way somewhere and it was a complete misrepresentation of what we felt as leaders,โ Adams said on RSN.
โAt no point did I ever feel that was the feeling of what the leaders wanted and I have expressed that a number of times now and so has (coach) Nathan (Buckley)
โWe are looking forward to moving on. I have spoken to โAdsy; in depth and we have broken bread about what my series of events are and what was reported in the media so I think he is relatively content with where that all sits.โ
Adams said it was important for the leaders and players at the club to stay connected at the time.
โI think what we did really well is leaders of the football club, the leadership group, we were in constant communication with each other and tried to be across everything as much as we possibly could and support each other through what was a really tough time,โ Adams said.
โEveryone has their own relationships with individual people that were traded or delisted or retired so people react differently to these player movements.
โI think the way that I tried to stay connected with the group was just to touch base with the guys that I knew that were probably also affected.
โWe tried to get an understanding of what the club was trying to achieve and there were a few agendas there, we obviously wanted to bring in some youth and we obviously had that pressure of the salary cap that needed to be rectified.
โSo the club has made some really tough and difficult decisions and our list management has the full faith of the playing group and us as leaders and Iโm glad that the process is now over, we can now move on and project forward and look forward to 2021.
โAfter speaking to all of the guys that left the club to go pursue careers elsewhere, I think they see the same thing, an opportunity that they can move on and make the best of the situation that now is.โ
