If a player doesn’t have pre-draft injuries, how on earth can you criticise the recruiting team for that? I mean, if Morgan doesn’t make it, sure its fine to criticise. Same with A. Long. But Pears was looking great before his injuries, and how were they to predict that Laverde would be injured? And Zaharakis??? Sorry, but any bloke who is picked pretty much anytime they’re injury free across their first 9 seasons, and wins a club B&F, is going to be considered a “win” in the recruiters hand book.
There are some misses in there. What do you expect from second rounders? Looking at the following chart, players picked between 21 and 35 average about 60 odd games. We’ve probably beaten that. A few misses (Stein, Jerrett, Ashby), but lots of reasonable hits. They’d be a lot better if Pears had stayed fit, Colyer hadn’t missed a year due to SAGA restrictions, and Carlisle hadn’t buggered off (ps: buggered isn’t blocked? ).
I think it is fine to raise questions about a number of things list management related. Saying the approach to second rounders is wrong doesn’t look like it should be one of them.
I pointed out above that we used our first round picks on midfielders in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011. We also did it in 2013, 2015, 2016 and depending on how you view Langford (certainly how the club seems to), in 2014.
If you take out later first round picks, and second round picks, we’ve taken a heap of midfielders ever since 2005.
I could definitely get behind that proposal. The good thing about Rockliff is as he ages, he can probably shift back forward. So you’re getting someone with potentially a pretty good shelf life (and for no draft picks).
Bar a few doozies here or there which is inevitable in recruiting, I can’t fault it over the last 10 years to be honest. We had a pretty good midfield with many contested beasts in their prime when the whole saga thing hit. It honestly hit us at the worst time when you’ve got all of Watson, Stanton, Hocking, Myers, Goddard, Howlett, Heppell, Colyer, Zaharakis ect in their prime. Sure it lacked some line breaking ability but that was just as much to do with our defensive gameplan than anything.
We had a top 4 list built by great recruiting. Goddard could see that hence the deflection. Then the saga dragged on 4 years and all of sudden we’re pretty much in a new era. An era where we lack 3 or 4 young draft picks that were taken off us. Good recruiting has kept us afloat. I’m not ruling out this seasons chances based on Worsfold saying it would take the returning players half a season to get a grip on things. So I still think we’re in a ‘wait and see’ position in terms of list decisions. For all we know we could finish on fire, finish 6th, win a final and then have a narrow loss against eventual premiers…would you not give the list another shot at it in 2018?! No doubt our recruiting plans for the offseason are rebuilding our midfield and defensive pockets/flanks.
You could also let Bird go, or at least on a lot smaller salary. I’d probably lean towards keeping Watson, but we’ll see how the rest of his year develops.
I agree that our midfield was performing fine pre-Saga, and it hit at the worst time. You also forgot Winderlich from that group above, he was still going in 2013 and 2014. And of course with no saga we possibly add another player with either our 2013 1st or 2nd, if we drafted a mid with one of those picks who could step in fast (or trade up for Bont) it would also have helped in 2014/2015.
A lot of these criticisms do appear to ignore the midfield was performing pretty well in the first half of 2013, and even parts of 2012. I can’t remember which of those two years it was, but during one the media was going gaga over our use and distribution.
What about all that stuff saying he’s a coach killer, a negative influence on the group. The fact that it seemed no one was willing to go to much length to get him might signify there is some truth in the rumour.
Don’t believe much of that stuff. We all knownhe can play footy and no one could ever question his work ethic. He probably hates losing and he lost a lot at the lions, He’s super competative and i think he’d be great for us.
Talking about Mathieson? He’s probably spewing he doesn’t to get play with his best mate Parish. would lol if he asks for a trade to Essendon when his contract is up.
OK, we’re never gunna agree if some here want to count players like Dempsey as an indication that we drafted mids. The thing is though it doesn’t really matter either way - the outcome is still the same. You either believe like me that we didn’t spend anywhere near enough in the draft or at the trade table to try to build a really strong midfield group & that’s why we’ve struggled in that area. This of course means that I believe Dodoro & or whoever else was deciding the direction of our recruitment got it wrong. We didn’t seem to foresee where the game was heading & draft accordingly.
The alternative is you believe like Ants indicated above, that we did in fact concentrate enough on drafting mids but it was just done poorly by drafting mids who were never mids, like Dempsey. Again either way doesn’t really matter because the net result is still the same - we have not had a strong enough, deep enough midfield group to become a genuine challenger. This has to fall back on our recruiting dept. I also believe the problem bar a lot of luck from last years & this years drafts is going to get worse in the short term as we have nobody coming through who looks capable of replacing Jobe, Goddard or even Stants & Hocking (at their best). We may not even have an upgrade on Howlett on the list yet.
The saga has left us with a numbers shortage around 21 years old but its also the drafting before that which has left an age gap in the list. We basically only netted 1 maybe 2 players every year from 08-13 with 2011 in particular being slim pickings. Most strong teams have a core in their prime years & experience which is probably 22-28 (talls possibly later) and 80+ games. I believe we don’t have enough players in that age bracket right now. Heppel, Hurley, Colyer & Hooker are the standouts plus Zaka which is why he’s been so disappointing. Luenberger & Green have been traded into that group but I think you can still see its thin. I think we need to add some more quality into that group & the best way to do that is through trading. If we are not prepared to strengthen that core then maybe the next best choice is to use it via trade to secure more young talent to give us a better chance of building the next wave. Again line & length drafting, like we’ve been doing year after year is unlikely to see our situation change.
Regardless of where you see the list currently at there is never ever a wrong time to add a top quality player to your list especially when you have a situation like we have now. GWS & GC, like no clubs ever before, have had access to a lot of young talent. These non traditional interstate clubs were always going to struggle to keep all their players & they are currently leaking that talent back & its an opportunity we’ve not seen before. A player like Kelly simply doesn’t become available every year & certainly there’s no reason to believe that type of talent may be on the move in 2-5 years or whenever we may seem more ready to challenge. IF he actually does want out it would be moronic if we didn’t pursue him. As I said earlier its never going to be a case of “at any cost” but the chance to add a player who is already a gun & is just about to enter that prime bracket is just never ever a bad move. Its like suggesting that Zach Merrett wouldn’t be a great addition to any club.
I’m not sure saying people WANT it to be a Luke Parker moment is fair. I’m also not sure who’s overrating him. He’s a young mid who played 11 games, averaged 18 disposals & kicked 8 goals. That’s a decent 1st year by any standard. I think its reasonable to say we would all have been thrilled to see Redman &/or Morgan show similar promise.
).
