Past recruiting biting club

[Saintmike65]

It is said that a bad draft can set a club back 5 years, well, the reality is apart from last year, St.Kilda had a series of bad drafts going back to the Elsaugh and Pelchen days.
In an ideal world, we shouldn't have a midfield issue, as Petracca, Touk Miller and Bontempelli should be wearing red, white & black.
To explain, the whole footy recruiting community saw Petracca as the best young player in that draft pool..except Elsaugh & Richo!
Bontempelli was a massive draft bolter in the second half of his draft year but no, Elsaugh was so fixated on Billings, we missed the boat.
Then, when we had the luxury of picks 7 & 8, we pick 2 flankers in the hope they would become midfielders A - la Billings.
To make it worse, we were keen on Touk Miller that draft, so we could of (and should have picked up Miller and Naughton).
I've only highlighted these but there were several drafts prior that were disasters.
In contrast to Melbourne, which was very shrewd the last few years picking up 2 champion mids in Petracca and Oliver, a classy ball user in Salem, X factor hybrid forward in Fritch plus a future star in Luke Jackson through brilliant use of trading of future ist round picks, thus improving their access to the cream.
On top of this, a gut running wingman on a lot less money than ours and 2 key backs in Lever and May were traded in.
Meanwhile, we had to fill our midfield by trading in players from other clubs, filling in holes that could have been filled via the draft.
To rub salt into the wounds, Melbourne's head recruiter, Jason Taylor, WAS at St. Kilda and applied for the job when John Beveridge retired!!

[The_Dud]

Our refusal to draft pure midfielders is starting to hit us hard right now.

[meher baba]

Petracca was definitely a bad miss.

Not sure re the Bont: lots of clubs missed how good he was.

Touk Miller wasn’t in the 2017 draft. Are you thinking of someone else?

[Teflon]

Again every club has missed and horror stories
2012 10 years ago now
What’s the club been doing last 6/8 ?

[B.M]

Touk Miller and Shai Bolton were both tipped in phantom drafts to be picked by StK

We took D Mac at 22 whilst Miller went at 29
And
We took Ben Long whilst Bolton went at 29

If only Cal Toomey or Matt Bergman drafted for us. They also rated Petracca as No 1.

[Saintmike65]

Petracca was definitely a bad miss.

Not sure re the Bont: lots of clubs missed how good he was.

Touk Miller wasn’t in the 2017 draft. Are you thinking of someone else?

Touk was in the same draft as Clark and Coffield…I’ve been told the club was super keen on him but then took Coffield instead…seems they love drafting flanker types!!!
Bontempelli had an incredible second half of his draft season..clubs knew about him alright…not dissimilar to the Oliver scenario but Melbourne were smart enough to nab him.

[Saintmike65]

Touk Miller and Shai Bolton were both tipped in phantom drafts to be picked by StK

We took D Mac at 22 whilst Miller went at 29
And
We took Ben Long whilst Bolton went at 29

If only Cal Toomey or Matt Bergman drafted for us. They also rated Petracca as No 1.

Yep…spot on B.M.
I mistakingly had us taking Coffield instead of Touk but you’re right, it was McKenzie.
If I was head of recruiting I’d definitely be picking Cal Twomey’s brain, see’s a lot of under age footy and knows his stuff.

[Saintmike65]

Petracca was definitely a bad miss.

Not sure re the Bont: lots of clubs missed how good he was.

Touk Miller wasn’t in the 2017 draft. Are you thinking of someone else?

Touk was in the same draft as Clark and Coffield…I’ve been told the club was super keen on him but then took Coffield instead…seems they love drafting flanker types!!!
Bontempelli had an incredible second half of his draft season..clubs knew about him alright…not dissimilar to the Oliver scenario but Melbourne were smart enough to nab him.

Sorry…they took DMac instead of Touk Miller…thanks B.M. for clarifying.

[SaintPav]

No need to mention names but much of our trading also leaves a lot to be desired.

They are now busts.

[meher baba]

FWIW it was McKenzie and Hugh Goddard we took ahead of Miller. And ahead of Steele for that matter. It was the same draft we took Paddy ahead of Petracca.

It was thought at the time to be a very weak draft but, in retrospect, it featured not only Petracca, Steele and Miller, but also Angus Bradshaw, de Goey, Peter Wright, Darcy Moore, Liam Duggan, Jake Lever, Neal-Bullen, Caleb Daniel, Harris Andrews, Toby McLean, Bailey Dale and Ed Langdon.

If you look at the draft order, you can see that a lot of clubs got it wrong. But none so bad as us with Paddy over Petracca.

[Munga]

I'd love to see the comparison of our drafting vs phantom over the last 15 years.

Actually, I probably don't need to see it... anything would've beaten ours. Anyone with an internet connection would've drafted better than we did.

[Saintmike65]

I'd love to see the comparison of our drafting vs phantom over the last 15 years.

Actually, I probably don't need to see it... anything would've beaten ours. Anyone with an internet connection would've drafted better than we did.

Sad but true…quality recruiting team cannot be underestimated.
We also desperately need a quality tactician on the coaching front.

[wally]

I would still like to know how much influence the hierarchy and coach/ match committee have in the eventual pick. Unless you are actually in the room at those meetings I think we are all therorising / guessing

[Saintmike65]

I would still like to know how much influence the hierarchy and coach/ match committee have in the eventual pick. Unless you are actually in the room at those meetings I think we are all therorising / guessing

Regardless of who makes the call, the players drafted are critical to club performance and will be scrutinised by supporters and the media.

[B.M]

On trades

Coach and list managers have the most influence

In recruiting

The decisions are made pretty much by recruiting staff

Coach and footy mgr will challenge them on their decision making but ultimately they make the call - because they are the ones with the info!

[Wayne42]

According to the Emma Quayle article that was posted on here, Emma was at the Saints recruiting meetings, Richo wasn't keen on drafting Paddy but
wasn't able to get Elshaug or Finnis, amongst others, to agree with his concerns. I don't blame Richo for that blunder.

Good to see Paddy doing well as a defender in Sydney.

Paddy a defender, Hind a back flanker, who'd have thought, well, not the Saints.

I wouldn't be using Melbourne as a drafting yard stick, they spent years getting it wrong before they worked it out.

[B.M]

Melbourne drafted and traded a premiership

[Sainternist]

It’s no secret, the likes of the Pelican, Tony Coleslaw and Meat Brains set us back years

[Saintmike65]

According to the Emma Quayle article that was posted on here, Emma was at the Saints recruiting meetings, Richo wasn't keen on drafting Paddy but
wasn't able to get Elshaug or Finnis, amongst others, to agree with his concerns. I don't blame Richo for that blunder.

Good to see Paddy doing well as a defender in Sydney.

Paddy a defender, Hind a back flanker, who'd have thought, well, not the Saints.

I wouldn't be using Melbourne as a drafting yard stick, they spent years getting it wrong before they worked it out.

There’s a big enough sample of Melbourne getting their recruiting right…they’ve been good for a number of years.
Hard to argue when they were the dominant team last season!

[spert]

I would still like to know how much influence the hierarchy and coach/ match committee have in the eventual pick. Unless you are actually in the room at those meetings I think we are all therorising / guessing

I believe Richo went and watched Coff playing before being drafted.

[loris]

According to the Emma Quayle article that was posted on here, Emma was at the Saints recruiting meetings, Richo wasn't keen on drafting Paddy but
wasn't able to get Elshaug or Finnis, amongst others, to agree with his concerns. I don't blame Richo for that blunder.

Good to see Paddy doing well as a defender in Sydney.

Paddy a defender, Hind a back flanker, who'd have thought, well, not the Saints.

I wouldn't be using Melbourne as a drafting yard stick, they spent years getting it wrong before they worked it out.

Wasn’t it Elshaug and Armeet Bains that we’re doing all the blowing up of reasons to select McCartin? Also some overweight character ( don’t know his name). In the video Richo was the one asking the hard questions about Paddy, he didn’t appear to be convinced. However the recruitment ‘team’ seemed to hold sway in the decision making. That video is possibly still on the archives of the Sainter.com site.

[B.M]

AR was very concerned he couldn’t get his skin folds down in an elite pathway environment.

[shanegrambeau]

Just occurred to me that Paddy Mac will be playing on us this week, and on which forward?
Guess who?
Me say Mr Sharman?
And he may run him a merry dance.

My secret sauce and my opensource spy network down under, courtesy of Warrant Flying Officer Nobuo Fujita, in his Yokosuka E14Y float plane, tell me Cooper wore a black shirt at training today...and you know what that means!

[Life Long Saint]

Bontempelli should be wearing red, white & black.
...
Bontempelli was a massive draft bolter in the second half of his draft year but no, Elsaugh was so fixated on Billings, we missed the boat.

Oh, please! Hindsight drafting is the easiest game in town.
Boyd, Kelly, and Billings were clear top 3 in that year. Billings was a 2 time U18 AA with elite kicking and a leader.
Bont was considered a top 10 at best.

Kudos to the Bulldogs who saw something more in him. But I'd bet, if they had pick 3, they'd have Jack Billings instead of Bont. We might have taken Bont at 4 because of the Dal Santo connection.

[repta]

it is not an exact science.
Comes down to who is on the list and where the perceived deficiencies lie.

Some bloody awful draft choices that started with Pettracca.

Thought at the time Coff / Clark were strange picks. Should have used the rule one mid / one key position. Ended up picking two mids or two different types of players. Coff doesnt have the tank for mid. Doesnt have the height for key.
Clark has potential. Hopefully he will rise into it (he has shown glimpses).
Billings is what he is. Stkilda need to use him better. Silky smooth operator that excels in a bit of space. I have the feeling that he is either directed into bad positions (eg too far inside) or hasn't got the presents to demand the ball (from outside).

Owens, Windhager and NWM look to be good pickups (but only time will tell if they continue to improve and live up to their potential).