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They had their chance to win a flag with the great collection of young guys the comp has ever seen- only issue was they had a rubbish coach. Now they have a new coach but a pretty rubbish list. They have no real identity, and they lose good players pretty much every trade period
They are going to be bottom 6 for quite a few years
Yeah it’s a bit surprising isn’t it. Obviously whatever message Cameron was selling had gone stale with that group but it does seem like Kingsley has a similar approach. Already unleashed the blow torch multiple times this year and just seems like a really intense bloke in the coaches box. Still have some talented players but they really did butcher their window.
To this day I maintain the biggest mistake they made was choosing Cameron over Choco Williams. Williams with that list would have been amazing.
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I don’t 100% blame them. They’ve bled quality players continually, since free agency came in and since contracts stopped being worth a piece of second-hand toilet paper. Shiel, Treloar, Taranto, Hopper, Cameron, Adams, Kennedy, Bruce, Plowman, Steele, Lobb, Setterfield, Caldwell etc etc etc. They’ve had to rebuild their side almost every off-season, Cameron was a MASSIVE loss and they’ve never replaced him, and they’ve had to pay such overs to retain their established players that they’ve had to low-ball their younger guys who’ve walked instead, so now they’re fielding sides like today’s where all their best players are 28+.
Shiel, Treloar, Taranto, Setterfield, Hopper, and Steele kicking to Cameron is a pretty fearsome proposition even now, and would have been much scarier two years ago. The side of blokes they’ve failed to hold on to would probably beat the side they have. And that’s not entirely their fault.
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Also signed him up under the understanding that he would take the reigns after Sheeds served his PR role as acting head coach but then went on to shaft him financially and the rest is history. Completely mismanaged the situation.
Also started off their inaugural years with a bunch of inexperienced assistant coaches, learning the coaching caper on the hop. Not exactly ideal for player development.
Hard to see how they won’t be a perpetual feeder club from now on.
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It doesn’t work with the current 20-25 year olds.
In all fairness…
I don’t think it works with older players either.
I’d hate to work with someone yelling instructions at me.
It may work once or twice, but after that your just being a c*ck.
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I would agree with all this but think they’ve also made some very poor decisions along the way as well. Unfortunately for them, it was and always will be a very difficult market to succeed in.
To be fair, they did get pretty close and things could’ve easily gone differently.
If by close, you mean making a GF, then l agree. If you mean something else, then l would like to know it. Making the GF was a great achievement, but once they got there, they made a total mess of it. Playing an injured player is one thing, playing 2 recovering from injury was a recipe for disaster.
Making the grand final and the prelim in 2016 and 2017. I thought they were actually a better side those years and was surprised when they beat collingwood to qualify for the GF. From memory that Cotchin hit on Shiel was a bit of a defining moment in that prelim and Richmond were definitely more vulnerable at that point.
Probably had 4 years where they were in discussion to make things happen if all things clicked.
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They had two options when they started, Option 1 trade high draft pick players for solid B graders and over the hill A graders and keep a few good draft picks. Probably be a half decent side, build some culture maybe win a final or two.
Option 2 keep all your high picks and build a super side, play in multiple grand finals.
I would be interested what path a new club would take given hindsight if the exact same circumstances arose today.
It wasn’t quite that simple. Both expansion sides desperately wanted to recruit more solid mature AFL-experienced players than they did. Simple truth is that only a very small number of players wanted to go no matter what the $ offered and how tempting the trade deal was, and if a player doesn’t want to be traded, then that player is going nowhere.
Both GC and GWS had to make the best with what was available (and of course both were lumbered with a poached NRL player on massive $ too). GC blew all their cash on Ablett and then surrounded him with a rabble. GWS played it a bit smarter, with Ward and Mumford and Shaw and Scully and Davis, and later on added Deledio, Griffen etc. Much more in the way of solid experienced hard-nosed workers, culture builders, and more blokes with years of career in front of them that GC were able to scrounge. But that doesn’t help you if you have several pick 1s blow up in your face, and you continually bleed your next generation every trade week.
I think what you’re saying is true to a point. I still think both sides could of found some more solid citizen types to purely build culture, would of looked bad medium term but I think in the long run it would of been better for them as a club.
AFL seems an outlier in sports for player movement. Players don’t like to move and the loyalty to the team that drafts you is strong. There are some that move for money but more that move for a chance at success. Most though just stay loyal. It’s interesting when you look at NBA where fans and commentators are starting to question Dame for staying loyal to a team with no title aspirations. In AFL we would be lauding him for his loyalty
Yeah, the problem they had was that the solid citizen, heart and soul types that they most needed are the ones least likely to be lured away to an entirely manufactured franchise by a big paycheque, unless they were fringe 22 or approaching retirement, either of which presented obvious problems too,
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Option 3. Do what they did, but when Kelly, Coniglio, Whitfield came calling offer only standard amounts and say that’s it. And don’t offer kids excessive overs.
But at the end of the day with a decent coach they’d probably have a premiership.
The giants had that extra money because they had a much bigger list than other clubs.
At least an extra 6 players to pay for on the senior list alone
The extra cap reduced and disappeared with the list reduction.
The biggest advantage the giants and swans have today is with their academies.
Arguably GWS zone is way too big and generous.
Sydney have had some elite talent through theirs too, but at least its ensuring Sydney/NSW talent plays for NSW clubs.
That’s good for the game
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Presumably approved by the same AFL that stopped us using the word “amigos” in 2013…