Johnny Member wrote:We have to take the key forward.
We just have to.
Terry Wallace spruiks some stat that basically every decent key forward in the game (or at least a very, very high %) come high in the draft (ie. taken in the top 10).
They're not all guaranteed to be stars - but it's almost a guarantee that unless they're taken in the top 10 they'll be no good.
Here's some decent key forwards of the last five or six years.
Top 10: Riewoldt N (1), Roughead (2), Kennedy (4), Pavlich (4), Franklin (5)
10 to 20: Lynch T (11), Schulz (12), Riewoldt J (13), Hall (19)
Rest of ND: Petrie (23), Darling (26), Tippett (32), Fevola (38), Goodes (43), Mooney (56), Bradshaw (56)
Father-Son: Brown (30), Cloke (39), Hawkins (41), Waite (46)
Rookie Draft: Jenkins (12), Podsiadly (50)
Others: Cameron (GWS underage pick), Walker (NSW scholarship pick 75), Tredrea (Port Adelaide foundation pick)
Certainly doesn't look like the majority of them are in the top 10, though there's definitely some quality there.
And these guys were also taken in the top 10 over the last twenty years:
Jack Watts (1)
Scott Gumbleton (2)
Brendon Fewster (3)
Ryan Fitzgerald (4)
Luke Livingston (4)
Tim Walsh (4)
Andrew McDougall (5)
Jarrad Grant (5)
Kepler Bradley (6)
Tom Williams (6)
Beau Dowler (6)
Mitch Thorp (6)
Bowen Lockwood (7)
Lawrence Angwin (7)
Leigh Brockman (8)
John Meesen (8)
John Butcher (8)
Jason Laycock (10)
Plenty of ways to fail picking a key forward in the top 10.
I'm not sure Wallace's theory holds up.