Aren’t there academy picks, father sons this year who would be in top 4-5 but we can’t get?
Yep which was the second youngest of all the sides picked
1 older bloke isn’t sending our average skyrocketing
We have a young list, the numbers support that
It’s not hard
1 Like
I was agreeing with you. But the case is that with F/S, academy, compensation and priority picks, in most years now you need to finish bottom 3 to guarantee having a top 5 selection.
2021 was the best example, with Daicos and Darcy going 2 and 4
1 Like
Cool, what’s our strategy to win a Grand Final.
1 Like
Goldstein picked instead of Draper will raise our average age to just over 25, it’s not a massive change even with such a huge outlier.
That’s a great question and the answer hasn’t been clear while we’ve had the board that we’ve had for the last two decades.
Draftguru gives great list analysis resources.
https://www.draftguru.com.au/lists/2025
https://www.draftguru.com.au/clubs
We are:
- 17th/18th for number of A graders
- 15th for average age
- 11th for average games.
It’s the first of those points that we need to address before we win a flag.
4 Likes
The Pareto principle is that 80% of your output is dictated by 20% off your inputs. So with teams using around 30 players a season, this means a lot will rest on your top 6/7 players.
Another way of looking at it is an afl team will have around 350 disposals a game. If a team has Daicos who can get it 30+ times a game and is an elite user, you have one player having nearly 10% of a teams entire disposals
2 Likes
Yep… which makes an A grader roughly 5 times more valuable than a B grader
1 Like
Its why you need 8 really good players, 4 of which play heavy midfield minutes, win contested footy and take care of the footy with above average disposal.
The others are prob KPF, KPB, HBF distributer, small forward.
The rest can be role players who don’t ■■■■ up, break even on 1v1 and don’t turn it over too much.
We have barely had two for a loooooong time.
Just wanted to give a shout-out to all those that came down for the march today. It was a successful day. Cheers.
21 Likes
Yes bow down to our lord and saviour in Brad
1 Like
There’s always one…
3 Likes
That’s just Dave Swan coming from the pub. He was coached by Brad as an assistant at Collingwood and allways ready to give thanks to the great man.
1 Like
Dunno if I agree with this,
The evidence:
- Geelong who get brownlow medallists and Coleman medallists just walk into their club
- Sydney whos academy (which has access to kids in the the largest populated state) has kept them afloat (imagine playing in a granny and then getting the #1 pick the very next year in Heeney)
- Hawthorn had to bottom out to rise up the ladder, still dont think they have the cattle to win against a really good side.
- Richmond, won three flags and have bottomed out. Had one of the all time trade periods in 2016 to kickstart the dynasty.
- Brisbane, had to to stay at the bottom for years but now are seeing the fruits of their labor.
So it seems to get an elite list you need to do one or a combination of things.
- Tank and get picks in
- attract elite Free Agents in an already elite environment
- Have an AFL sponsored Academy program
- Have an elite trade period to put your average team over the edge.
Realistically looking at where Essendon is at, tanking to get elite talent into the club is the best bet as the other options aren’t really available on where the club is at.
2 Likes
You kind of actually agreed with Nino in your post lol.
Geelong - dont bottom out.
Sydney - dont bottom out.
Richmond - didnt bottom out before their dynasty.
Brisbane actually did the opposite and benefited massively from trades (Dunkley, Daniher, Neale)
In comparison to North Melbourne who have spent the last 7 years at the bottom of the ladder and are still losing by 80 points on the weekend.
5 Likes
Extra digit
1 Like
And when we finish top 4 almost every year for over a decade, these will be teams for us to try and emulate.
Yeah, they did, it just took a while.
Their whole dynasty was essentially built around
- Cotchin pick 2
- Rance pick 18 (a priority pick for only winning 3 games in 07)
- Martin Pick 3
Smartly drafting Reiwoldt at pick 13 also helped.
They took Deludio at pick 1 a few years before that as well.
4 Likes
That last line of North full sent me. 
1 Like
