Are you suggesting we have been getting better value for money in paying the players we’ve had rather than spend it on players who can fill a need? We should have heaps of cash because who on our list should be getting it all? If Hawthorn can win flags while trading in quality players then why can’t we? As for draft picks we have wasted enough on project players who never come good so why the hell not use some again to fill a defined need. Every premier of the last few decades has traded in key parts of their list. Hawthorn of course made it an art but Sydney traded for their entire fullback line plus their ruck & rover. Geelong desperately needed a ruckman & so traded 2 x 1st round picks for Ottens. Collingwood did the similar to get Jolly & then also added Ball (tried to trade but forced him into the ND). The Bulldogs of course did something that seemed radical at the time & threw a massive trade to get Boyd but somehow it paid off.
Now I’m not suggesting its easy to simply pick up good players in trade week but its something we simply have been poor at doing & need to improve at. Line & length drafting year after year hoping it all falls into place doesn’t appear to have worked for anyone.
1: Heppell Zac Merrett Parish
2: Langford McGrath Fantasia
3. Begley Laverde Tippa
4. Redman Mutch McKenna
5. Francis Long Colyer
6. Ridley Clarke Morgan
That’s 18. How many of that bunch will be in the midfield rotations in 2 years. The more the better, but there’s still a long way to go, and a lot of learning for most of them.
I look at that list and I see quite a few good players and still with shitloads of development to come.
Obviously they won’t all make it but we will most likely get another high draft pick this year to go with it and who knows one of these above names could be the next Fyfe.
Fyfe, Kelly, Swallow, Rockliffe, Wines, Shuey, Mcrae, Hannebery, Cripps, Hall, Parker, Dumont. Steven. Without knowing the contract status of every player, that’s the type of targets I would be looking at. Now I know that again its not exactly easy to get players of that quality BUT other teams have & you can bet your sweetarse that other teams will have no fear of trying to pry Merrett, McGrath, Fanta & any other young talent we have out from us.
You could do the same every year for the last decade, where we thought the juniors will come good as a whole. It never happened, part of the problem was we drafted non-midfielders or used late picks and hoped they would magically turn into stars.
I am optimistic about the current crop more than before, because we have actually used high picks on natural midfielders and unearthed a gun in zach merrett. A midfield of Merrett, Parish, McGrath and Heppell should be very good in a couple of years. Just needs an inside beast like Ollie Wines.
Lets not forget that our last premiership was built on a massive Sheedy trade for 4 players that got us Lucas & Lloyd (you can also trade to improve your draft position) and the fact that we only got Merrett because of a forced trade. Our 2000 side also had Barnes & Wellman whom we traded for. Again nobody who’s won a flag in recent memory did it through drafting & developing only. We’ve been pretty much a spectator in trade week for a long time outside of when we are losing talent. I think we need to at least try to fix the talent gaps in our list.
Sorry strongly disagree with the last part. It is exactly this thinking that has gotten us nowhere recently. As you say we focused on talls with high picks which worked reasonably well (we have had a good spine for the most part). We thought high quality midfielders could be unearthed later. Yet apart from Merrett (and Jobe) who have we unearthed with a late pick who has become a star mid? In contrast, we snagged Hooker and Crameri with a late pick or rookie draft. The modern game for more than a decade now has been built around the midfield. Essendon I think only very recently has started drafting accordingly.
In my opinion McGrath will be as good if not better than Merrett, then we have Parish also who should be solid player.
I actually believe Fanta will be a gun midfielder but I’m not sure that he will see a lot of time in there while he is required forward. What I have seen of him win there though screams of a very good midfielder.
And despite what others may think I believe Langford can become a good midfielder also.
Then we have Begley, Laverde, Walla, Mutch, Colyer and Clarke that can develop into players.
I believe people get carried away with big name players when the reality is, its deep midfields that actually perform best.
Doggies have the best misfield but most would say that Bont is the only star! If you have a great gameplan and the cattle to carry it out then thats what win flags, not superstars! Like i say, I’m optimistic. I don’t believe we are as far away as some think.
Of course we can never know what could have been but I was very very keen for us to try to get Rockliff. It looked, from the outside, that he was wanting out of Brisbane & he was IMHO exactly what we needed. Now again, we have no real way of knowing what might have been but it also looked like Brissy may have wanted him out & may have been happy with our 2nd round pick. The stumbling block appeared to be his salary but we should have had plenty to offer as again this list has not won a final in 12 years - who are we overpaying?
The other trades that eventuated that I was envious of where the GWS boys. Its seemed pretty ■■■■■■ obvious to me that the best way to try to fill the talent gaps in lists created in some part because GWS & GC ate all the draft picks was to pillage their lists. Jack Steele was an obvious 1 & I also rated Hosking -Elliot. Giving up a future second rounder is a no brainer for trades like that. We need to get creative, take some risks that aren’t drafting guys nobody else rates (Steinberg, Morgan)
I’d also have a sniff around Brisbane’s list as I still think there’s some talent there that should be easier to cut lose. Taylor is 1 I reckon could become very good elsewhere & even a guy like Nick Robertson should be cheap & has upside for our flanker come midfielder roles.