BadRossco wrote:This is not the only selection damning our recruiting people. Try McQualter, Lynch, Raph Clarke, Cripps these were all our first picks and not an AFL standard player among them
So much about this comment makes no sense. For a start, Cripps has already played two games for his new club and they're better than us so he's presumably AFL standard.
And why are you just looking at some of our first draft picks in the last ten years? Here are all of them:
2003 pick 8: Raph Clarke (85 games)
2004 pick 17: Andrew McQualter (89 games)
2005 pick 33: Sam Gilbert (133 games)
2006 pick 9: David Armitage (73 games)
2007 pick 9: Ben McEvoy (71 games)
2008 pick 13: Tom Lynch (6 games)
2009 pick 32: Nick Winmar (2 games)
2010 pick 24: Jamie Cripps (16 games)
2011 pick 25: Sebastian Ross (1 game)
2012 pick 24: Nathan Wright (0 games)
There's some pretty crappy first picks there - two in the thirties, three in the twenties. What's the chance that you'll get a player at that pick? Lower than in the top ten. Only three picks below ten and none below eight, so it's not exactly the greatest set of draft picks ever. And yet there's some solid players there, Gilbo, Armo and McEvoy are still in the side, and Cripps would be if we weren't forced to trade him. That's four out of ten. And Ross and Wright haven't had time yet so who knows if they'll make it?
Yes, there's some failures, but how many clubs can you look at over the last ten years and say they've never picked a dud?