In fact, itâs so good, itâs a magic self-restocking mini-bar. With one of those fancy ice-cube dispensers in the door. And the ice-cubes are in the shape of little jackets. And the ice doesnât melt and water down your drink. Coz itâs magic.
Sorry, but I really disagree with this. Just because it mattered more for us, any successes are rated higher? Every pick and draft needs to be rated on its merits. And Dodorroâs decision to trade out for Edwards/Aylett turned out to be a very bad decision. The reality is it is only because Merrett has come on so very far that this draft is seen like that. Kudos to Dodorro for the Merrett pick, but I think Blitz will over-rate any draft which produces a champion player as an automatic great draft.
Iâd take a draft that produces a champion player and call it a great draft each and every time.
Those champion players donât come around all that often. Over 10 years Iâd have 10 champion players in my team. Iâm going to pick up a bunch of Henry Slatterys to run around with my 10 champion players, and Iâm going to win the competition every year from now until the end of time.
My point is that the theory is you stand a much better chance of picking up good-to-champion players with first round draft picks. Anything beyond the first round becomes much longer odds. We got Merrett and Fantasia with picks 26 and 55, both picks that we got in trades. We were completely excluded from early draft picks but still ended up with two guns. We struck out on the Edwards/Aylett deal, no argument, but if youâre unhappy with the result of having Merrett, Fantasia and Ambrose still on the list from that disastrous year, then youâre a very grumpy dragon who needs a big cuddle.
Well, as per my avatar, I wonât argue the dragon bit, but Iâm definitely a dragon who understands comfort.
I think the 2013 draft was good. I just consider hitting champion players more luck than skill (unless using top 5 picks), or someone would do it a lot more regularly. So I suppose I say this draft was good, but it didnât get us as far ahead of the pack as we might like, and could have been improved.
Whereas the 2015 draft, hitting Hartley, Brown, Walla with late picks, identifying Dea and convincing Kelly to come as top ups, (hopefully) nailing both top 6 picks, in what has generally been average results draft, Iâm a lot more pleased about as an outcome. I think it set us up beautifully structurally as well. If one of Redman or Morgan come on (and assuming Francis does) it could be a monster of a draft.
I certainly wonât argue about the 2015 draft! And I wonât argue the luck/skill distinction either. I just reckon it was a great result considering the disaster we were facing at the time. Of course it could have been beter, but itâs still a pretty good strike rate all things considered.
Now come and give me a big cuddle, you frumpy old teddy bear.
Interesting. The main competitors for the âcrownâ would be Adelaide (also no first rounder due to penalties, #23 Crouch, #46 Riley Knight, and Cameron and Jake Kelly in the rookie draft), GWS (sure, they had great picks. But they still got McCarth at #14, Lobb at #29 and Barrett as a zone selection in addition to their top 10 picks), North depending on just how good Brown becomes (#47, also got McDonald #8 and Dumont #30), and Sydney (Z Jones #15, Nankervis #35 and Aliir Aliir #44).
