[quote=“Henry_s_Angry_Pills, post:335, topic:3761, full:true”]
He’s been here all of 18 months and been injured for 9? of them
I don’t really know what else to say. He was rated inside the top 40 of his draft, it doesn’t make sense to chop him at the first opportunity. Not like we’ll have much of a squeeze for spots.
Also I’d love to know the hit rate for 3rd+ round rookie picks to even play 1 game.
[/quote]](#14 Jordan Ridley - Riddle me this)
Rookie and PSD picks from the beginning of the Rookie Draft in 1996/97.
The Rookie Draft has been going since the end of 1996 which divides into roughly equal Sheedy and post Sheedy era. In the Sheedy era (not including the 2007 draft) 14 out of 39 rookies played a senior game (36%) and as much as we loved them, all 4 of his PSD picks played senior footy, (Zantuck, Heffernan, Camporeale and Michael), and in the post Sheedy (starting from the 2007 draft) 17 out of 27 non recycled EFC playing rookies have played at least 1 senior game (63%) and 6 out of 7 PSD players have played at least 1 senior game, but the nature of the picks were quite different from the Sheedy days when the rules were different also (Hams, Hibberd, Hardingham, Skipworth, Williams, Bellchambers).
The players who were rookied after being on the senior list previously were John Williams, Anthony Long, Kurt Aylett, Jay Neagle, Tyson Slattery, Ariel Steinberg, Will Hams and currently Sean McKernan. These are all post Sheedy era and only the last 3 out of the 8 (37.5%) played senior football after being rookied, and perhaps Will was lucky with the sanctions increasing his chances. So it may be reasonable to conclude that we have mainly wasted picks with recycling rookie picks except where it was to cover a specific need like McKernan as ruck depth and Stein as KPD depth, both of which have been needed.
So were we much worse at recruiting rookies in the Sheedy era? I suppose we were clinging to the glory days of the of being a consistent finals side up until 2004 and Sheedy was more prone to picking his finals players and picking up recycled players (see PSD and a number of infamous draft picks) rather than the new blood amongst the rookies, is one way of looking at it, but we got worse and worse at picking rookies as the Sheedy era went on (post 2003).
By my reckoning, there are 7 players of the Sheedy era who made a significant contribution as best 22 players (in bold) who were from the Rookie draft and the PSD, and 9 players in the post Sheedy era who either have, would have (if we could have kept them) or are likely to make a significant contribution as best 22 players, and if Sam Draper makes it we could be averaging 1 best 22 player a year from the Rookie draft in the post Sheedy era, which is a pretty impressive strike rate. We currently have 7 promoted rookies / PSDraftees on our senior list at the moment (TBC, Bags, Ambrose, Heater, Bobcat, Walla and Conor), 5 of which are arguably best 22 and who play a significant role in the side.
Personally I think Dodoro needs a lot of credit for being able to spot upside that can be developed right down to the rookie draft
Below are those players originally picked up in the Rookie Draft and PSD who have played at least 1 senior game
(R1= Rookie pick 1 , R AP = Rookie Alternative Pathway pick, PSD 6 = Pre-season Draft pick 6)
2016
R AP Ben McNeice
2015
R22 Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti
2014
R12 Shaun McKernan
R47 Jake Long
R62 AP Conor McKenna
2013
R26 Patrick Ambrose - he goes OK
2012
PSD 6 Will Hams
2011
R11 Dalgliesh
R37 Mark Baguley
R29 Dell
R78 Brendan Lee
2010
PSD 4 Hibberd
R12 Josh Jenkins (Adelaide)
2009
PSD 7 Kyle Hardingham
R 30 Ben Howlett
R 43 Stewart Crameri
R 55 Marigliani
2008
PSD 3 Skipworth
R 64 Michael Quinn (AP)
2007
PSD 5 John Williams
PSD 8 Tom Bellchambers
R 5 Rhys Magin
R21 Jarrod Atkinson
2006
Interesting to note the change in tone of drafting going back to the Sheedy years, only recycled players recruited via PSD and rookie draft played
PSD 2 Mal Michael
R33 Rama
2005
Sheedy strikes again
PSD 4 Camporeale
PSD 10 Heffernan
R20 Heath Hocking
2004
PSD 6 Zantuck
R27 Benjamin Jolley
2003
2 not bad rookie picks in 2003
R27 NLM
R42 Andrew Lovett
2002
Who could forget
R28 Courtney Johns
2001
R46 Ken Hall
2000
R32 Damien Peverill
1999
R14 Cory McGrath
R30 David Johnson (Mark’s brother - played for Geelong)
R58 James Podsiadly (Geelong, Adelaide)
1998
No PSD or rookie picks
1997
R3 Dean Rioli
R67 Mark Johnson (rare distinction re-rookied from the rookie list)
1996
R13 Mark Johnson
R45 Gary Moorcroft