My gut feeling is, unless a super-high pick is offered (like, 1-10), in which case he would be traded, Laidley is just doing this to give McIntosh a wake up call. In 2007 he was close to All-Australian, and was streets in front of Hale and Petrie. Now he's lagging behind, and Laidley's done this to let him know his position in the team isn't automatic anymore.