Adrian Dodoro - Flankers into Mids since 2000 (Part 1)

[Ants]

Final response to @JBOMBER 's big post (ignoring follow ups).

As for big fish not changing teams I made a list a few weeks back of mids & all I got back was the claim that half of them weren’t mids in spite of the fact all were mids so I guess we’re back to you defining what you think a big fish mid is. I’ll just throw out there that I can think of at least 4 brownlow medalist mids who’ve changed clubs off the top of my head & with the expansion clubs still leaking talent there’s very little genuine excuses you should be able to imagine. You are free to have an expectation on our list manager of what you think he should be able to do but I have a higher standard. I see other clubs prospering doing the things I want us to do & frankly I’m sick of the excuses. If at the absolute least you can recognise his poor trading, & have to on some level acknowledge the poor outcomes of the drafting, how can you have faith he’s the best person to be in that role? Do you actually have faith in him or are you simply defending the club through some sense of obligation?

You mean is list?

Tom Rockliff

Do you mean other than Judd, Dangerfield, Ward, Thompson, Dal Santo, Ball, Prestia, Kennedy, Burgoyne, Ebert, Vince, Tyson, Polec, Beams, Griffin, Treloar, Mitchel & Omeara

This was a rubbish list. You start with 18 players over 12 years (I’m assuming Thompson is S. Thompson, who moved in 2005). But you can’t include players who chose to go home where Essendon isn’t home (Dangerfield, Polec, Ebert, Beams, Thompson), which cuts the list down to 13. You can’t include guys who weren’t big fish (Ball, Kennedy, Dal Santo, Tyson, Vince), which cuts it down to 8. And players who went to teams considered top 4 contenders weren’t likely to choose us either (Mitchell, O’Meara, Griffen), which leaves 5. Five guys who could seriously have changed clubs to us (Judd, Treloar, Burgoyne, Ward, and Prestia), over a 12 period. One who shifted during the saga, another who went for the bucket loads of cash that GWS offered. Even with 16 clubs, that means 11 have missed out. So Dodorro isn’t under-performing in that category, hardly anyone who isn’t in a unique location, or a top 4 contender gets big midfield fish.

On your second bit, where you’re sick of the excuses and asked if I’m just defending him out of club loyalty, obligation. No. I have some significant doubts. However, I’m also pretty clear that he’s been done over by the clubs philosophy, of which I have no idea how much he’s a part. I have no doubt he was primed towards 2013 => 2015, and that we got scuttled then. I’ve got some real queries which I’ve raised here on the list management philosophy and his trading, but the real problem is I have no idea who drove the list management philosophy decisions.

There are clearly a few teams who do it better than us, with the main one being the Swans. But I’m not sure if there are more than 2-3 clubs who outperform us year after year. And the real kicker is that there are 17 other clubs all trying to excel in this space. If Dodoro is top 5, then the odds of us getting a better replacement are very very long.

So really, you need to prove he’s worse than average if you’re going to convince me to get rid of him, or show me evidence that he’s the one making the decisions on the clubs’ directions.