No, That Was Laverde - when we got Langers (Ryder trade + end of first rd pick Laverde)
Ridley was just our second round pick. when we finished last.
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St Kilda is arguably still middle of the road because they started bringing in mature players too soon, rather than more bottom picks.
No, that was Laverde. We lost our 1st and 2nd round picks in 2013, but got a 2nd round pick for Crameri which we used on Merrett.
For 2014 we lost our first and second round picks, but the AFL gave us an end-of-first back, which we used on Laverde. Langford was picked with Portās first which we got for trading Ryder.
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Geelong had the best recruiter in the AFL.
We had the worst.
That is the difference.
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I wonder how talent spotters play into all this?
Do the same spotters do work for multiple clubs?
Or are some networks (like cats) just vastly superior to that of other clubs?
Sure. But theyāre all massive upgrades on what we have
haha very good
If we have won 3 to 4 premierships in a 10 year period recently like Hawthorn, Geelong and Richmond etcā¦ then I am happy if my club handed out the odd list spot out of empathy and kindness.
But after watching this club go through some of the worst years, and implodingā¦ destroying my happiness and thousands of othersāā¦I am not in a generous mood to applaud them for extending Edwards.
Even if you were may be last spot in the rookie draft after combing every part of Australia and even Ireland, and making sure there was no better option available.
After watching a finals intensity match today, there is no getting around the fact that many of our players are not up to itā¦ā¦ā¦ and simply will not cut it in high pressure matches of Finals.
Time to go:
Redman
McGrath
Shiel
Gresham
Wright
Setterfield
McKay
Menzie
Serious questions need to be asked of:
Martin
Perkins
Itās time to cut our losses. Enough of this semi-rebuild. You cannot carry this many passengers at a club.
We well and truely know which players will progress this club moving forward, and who wonāt.
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I think itās more around āwho do you build a team aroundā
Caddy
Roberts
Kako
Reid
Caldwell
Durham
Everyone else is basically expendable. You trade, Draft in players around these guys.
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We had a disastrous off season '23 leading into '24.
Acquisitions of McKay, Gresham and Goldy is just awful.
The first 2 are way overpaid, and Goldy whilst he should have been a ābreak glass in emergencyā player, only served to deny Bryan of extra games last year.
Duursma is the only success from that trading period.
It needs to be said we lost Zerk to make that happen.
Editā¦and we lost Massimo for nothing 
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Stinks of last ditch Dodoro desperation
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Dodoro is Judas
Yep agreed but canāt do it all so fast. Contracts need to end over time
No more ā ā ā ā kicks in the draft please
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You forgot Jones
Look likes Reid has gone past Zerk no big loss in losing him
We can put āshould have kept Massimoā to bed now Roberts will end up being the better player imo
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We are still a fair few players away from being good. I hope like hell we keep our picks (or crease our draft hand somehow) this year and take them.
We need another handful of player who can become good AFL players.
Wouldnāt be against a role player as a FA as well.
Roberts might become a better player.
We could have had both though.
In hindsight, we could have kept Zerk as a slight downgrade on McKay.
At least now we could play Hayes on merit.
McKay will never be dropped with what weāre paying him, and Iād like some pressure on his selection in the side.
Never happen with Brad though !
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Today exposed how far off we are against a competition benchmark. These players need to be replaced:
Prior
Redman
Gresham
Setterfield
Menzie
Jones
Perkins (been a fan but heās really frustrating me)
Some of those replacements might already be on our list, but we definitely need to recruit better than these blokes. Thatās 2 medium sized defenders, 2 small forwards, a medium sized forward, an inside midfielder and then whatever Jones is, replace him with something useful, most likely an outside ball user.
Setterfield is not best 22/23 and probably loses his place to Caldwell once fit. The rest you have to consider best 22/23 as they are selected more often than not when available.
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