Linton Lodger wrote: ↑Wed 06 Jun 2018 5:39pm
I thought I'd look at our recruiting since 2012 to have a precise look at how we've gone.
Obviously 2012 was almost completely non productive. We definitely wasted Pick 12 on Tom Lee and there's a strong argument that we wasted Pick 13 on Hickey. I understand we wanted Grundy but we were certain he'd go Top 10, in the end Grundy went at 18. Despite the miscalculation on Grundy, it was still slim pickings if we hadn't taken Lee & Hickey, in what was a comprised and ordinary draft. Lee had been a Top 10 pick in his first time around and had topped the WAFL goalkicking that year, other Clubs were also hovering. Aside from Hickey, Lewis Pierce is the only one still on our List from that draft.
2013 we drafted Billings, Dunstan, Acres and got Weller, Holmes and Templeton in the Rookie draft. Most of the angst with this draft comes down to Billings v Bontempelli. I think we did well, we won't know precisely how well for a few years, but it may turn out to be a sensational draft for us. Weller was a steal at pick 20 in the Rookie draft. We traded in Savage, Longer and Bruce. A very productive draft I think.
2014 and most of the angst is in relation to our use of Pick 1. I unlike many, think we made the right choice. If we had chosen to take a mid, then Brayshaw would've been a better pick than Petracca. We drafted McCartin, Goddard, McKenzie and Lonie. The arguments about McCartin have gone on and I've expressed my views. Goddard was expected to be the No.1 a year before the draft and many had him Top 10 in the end. It was a no brainer to take him when still there at 21. Unfortunately he has been disrupted by injuries. McKenzie and Lonie are the ones that were looking like busts, however Mc Kenzie has been good in recent weeks. Its important to note that we took Lonie in the 40s, we considered Caleb Daniel with that pick (he's currently playing VFL). We got Sinclair (what a steal!) and Payne in the Rookie Draft.
2015 we traded Pick 5 for Carlisle, fantastic acquisition. Then we drafted Gresham, Rice and White, nice trio. We rookie drafted O'Kearney and Coughlan. In addition to Carlisle we traded in Freeman. Freeman will be a risk that didn't come off or a triumphant recruiting coup. If his body holds up it will be the latter.
2016 we drafted Long, Battle and Phillips, they're all looking promising. We traded in Steele and Koby Stevens. We got Marshall in the Rookie draft.
2017 we drafted Clark, Coffield, Clavarino and Paton. Clark & Coffield look to be beauties and Paton is pushing for senior selection. We got Laglands in the Rookie draft and traded in Austin, who has had two fine games to kick off his career.
We got Ross with Pick 25 in 2011, Webster with 42! and Newnes with 37.
We have recruited about 50 players since Lyon's departure, over half of them are still on the List. 2012 was wasted, however I think its difficult to form an argument that our recruiting has been crap. In fact the last 2 years are starting to look inspired! It was our recruiting between 2006 and 2010 that was awful.