The Biggest Blunders Since 2008

[SAINT-LEE]

You have pull curtains on your career at some stage

Maybe Harves had had enough?

Harves had definitely had enough, he was not pushed he moved on. I talked with him one day for several hours at a business meeting we both had interests in....he was working hard to build his AFL retail store, HWH store & wanting to buy 2 more franchisees.
His family was growing up and he wanted the time footy took to be shared between family & business. He said he put in a lot of hours training year round that people never saw. (p.s. the summabitch can play golf, suckered me into a round then defiled me and I am pretty decent, but he was like pga good ). We went out after so I could buy him a meal for losing, I got a $130 steak but he had a $40 steak - he said he didn't eat large portions - and drank water! Wouldn't touch alcohol. It was odd.

He had just retired and said he had no regrets. But, he did say he was very keen on slowly building a coaching career and once his businesses were established and he would hand the daily management over to a new partner (don't know if he was referring to Shane Warne?).

[SAINT-LEE]

The list of hindsight blunders is a mile long....everyone has them.... EVERYONE.



2008 Draft:
We could've had-
Premiership players- Ryan Schoenmakers, Luke Shuey, Jack Redden, Jordan Roughead, Liam Sheils......

Premiership players AND All Australians
Dan Hannebery, Dayne Beams

All Australians- Rory Sloane, Hayden Ballantyne, Michael Walters

That's just 1 draft imagine hindsight for 12 more????


2009- Or how about selecting the joke Nicolas Winmar when Max Gawn was still available?
Then in the 2009 Rookie Draft we select Mark Hutchings instead of Alex Silvagni!

2010 - Suns took most of the round 1 gold ( punny, eh?) But we took Jamie Cripps, who was great ( but NEVER wanted to leave home and we traded away after 1 season) . But we did pass on Scott Lycett who's last 4 seasons of above avg or elite ruck work would not be handy right now at all.
Then in the 2011 Rookie Draft we thought:
Thomas Curren was waaaaayyyy better than Jason Johannisen!

2011 - started off with SWEET ASS trades of Tom Lynch but we got Terry Milera and Tommy Walsh, so yeah.

2011 National Draft we took Seb Ross instead of premiership player Elliot Yeo or recent trade Brad Hill ( we may have won this one!)

We did pick Daniel Markworth, Jimmy Webster and Jack Newnes, Jay Lever, Beau Maister....

2011 Rookie Draft was a crap shoot for everyone... we got Sam Dunnell


2012 - we lost Brendan Goddard and Jamie Cripps but scored Trent Darby Lane, Tom Hickey & Tom Lee

National Draft - we gave up pick 13 for Tom Hickey - if we had it we could've selected Brody Grundy ( but he's a chump, right?), we got pick 24&25 and smashed it with Spencer White and Nathan Wright..we grabbed Brodie Murdoch and Josh Saunders funny thing is Tim Membrey was still available.

Sure we could've had Jack Viney or several other players still in the best 22 for their teams...but we nailed it with Spencer White so I feel ok.
2013 Rookie Draft - we didn't see anything so passed on Sam Naismith and Zac Williams

2013 - we lost McEvoy for pick 18 (Dunstan) but gained Longer, let Dal Santo walk away...picked up Bruce and Delaney as well.

National Draft... of course...we picked Billings instead Bontempelli...then Dunstan and Acres over Brad Crouch, Hartung, Merritt, Lobb, Fantasia, Nankervis, Sicily and so many more

2014 - we lost Gwilt, traded away Stanley for pick 21 which netted nothing.. whoops Hugh Goddard.

With pick #1 we took McMartin over Petracca, Brayshaw, DeGoey, Ahern, Cockatoo, Lever, Wright and on and on.

We picked Daniel McKenzie at 22 over Jack Steele.
We took Lonie over Mitch McGovern and Caleb Daniel

2015 Rookie Draft - we took Jack Sinclair and he was the cream

2015-
Trade: we traded pick #5 for Jake, Essendon used it on Parrish but we could've selected...Rioli, Curnow, Weideman, McKay or Ah Chee.

Draft: We got Jade Gresham at #18 and wasted pick #40 on Brandon White instead of Jack Silvagni...we picked up Bailey Rice.

2016 Rookie - we saw gold in Nick O'Kearney whilst rejecting Tom Papley

2016 Trade: got in the Mighty Jack Steele and robbed Hawthorn in a trade swap!!!!

2016 National - Ben Long round 2, Josh Battle, Ed Phillips

2017 Rookie Draft - we got the legendary Rowan Marshall!!

2017 Trades: 3rd rounder for Logan Austin

Here's a gem:
2017 Draft - St Kilda select Hunter Clark, then Nick Coffield (using Hawthorns picks) but could've had Tim Kelly - who Geelong selected 15 picks later! I like Coffield but anyone who thinks Tim Kelly isn't 100x better needs to immediately call for an ambulance, you're not quite right in the cranium.

We took Clarivino at #35 instead of Constable
We got Ben Paton as well

2018 Rookie - Doultan Langlands and Lewis Pierce ( wasnt bad but we now know there was better)

Trade: traded Hickey and got Hannebury & Kent, swapped a bunch of picks with teams

National - Max King, Jack Bytel, Nick Hind, Robbie Young...we did solid not much better available

2019 Rookie/B/ Supplemental - Callum Wilkie, Alabaskis, Marsh and Rowe

2019 Mid Season - Jack Mayo

2019 Trade - Newnes went in Free agency, cheated GWS in a pick swap!, got Howard and Ryder, lost Steven to Cats, traded Blake Acres & picks for Hill, gave away Josh Bruce for pick 32&51, got Butler & Jones for pick swaps....so we essentially traded Bruce for Jones ( we got SCREWED).


2019 National Draft - we got Ryan Byrnes

2020 Rookie - Jack Bell


2020- trades - we traded in Jack Higgins and out Nick Hind, swapped picks, in free agency we got McKearnon and Crouch.
Frawley came out of retirement.

2020 - national draft - Matthew McLeod-Allison, Tom Highmore


2021 rookie - we passed
2021 supplementary draft - Hunter, Wood

[The_Dud]

Paddy McCartin for Christian Petracca.
The biggest of all.

Trout set the club back 10 years, particularly with that move. Billings over Bont was another stuff up but less obvious I suppose.

This Billings over the Bont has to be the greatest hindsight woe is me rubbish that keeps getting perpetuated. Please show me any links, references, thread titles prior to that draft that had the Bont top 3.

I get it, the Bont would be fantastic but so would have Judd over Ball, Rioli over McEvoy, Riewoldt over Armo.

Agree (Though the rumour was it was Judd over Ball as we tried to predict how another club would draft and got it wrong) that what is reasonable is with early draft picks that the recruiters just choose who is considered to be the best player at that time.

So that was Petracca over McCartin.

It was not Billings over the Bont.

Ball was a good pick ruined by injury, no one could see that coming. Was every bit as good as Judd and better than Hodge early on, then OP crueled him and was only a GOP from then.

[Waltzing St Kilda]

Those criticising Billings over Bont are exercising perfect 20/20 hindsight vision. And Lonie over Daniel? You might just as well ruminate on our picking Brian Wilson rather than James Hird with our pick 72 in 1990!

The problem with the Lonie/Daniel pick is that the club released a pre-draft video featuring Trout and co. actively discussing the merits of Daniel as a potential pick 21. They showed his highlight reel and spoke about what a terrific kid he was. Then they went ahead and recruited the unmentioned Lonie, letting Daniel slip all the way through to 48. All of which leaves you with the impression that the video was just a decoy, designed to draw other clubs away from our real target, Jack Lonie.

[Freebird]

Paddy McCartin for Christian Petracca.
The biggest of all.

Trout set the club back 10 years, particularly with that move. Billings over Bont was another stuff up but less obvious I suppose.

This Billings over the Bont has to be the greatest hindsight woe is me rubbish that keeps getting perpetuated. Please show me any links, references, thread titles prior to that draft that had the Bont top 3.

I get it, the Bont would be fantastic but so would have Judd over Ball, Rioli over McEvoy, Riewoldt over Armo.

Agree (Though the rumour was it was Judd over Ball as we tried to predict how another club would draft and got it wrong) that what is reasonable is with early draft picks that the recruiters just choose who is considered to be the best player at that time.

So that was Petracca over McCartin.

It was not Billings over the Bont.

Ball was a good pick ruined by injury, no one could see that coming. Was every bit as good as Judd and better than Hodge early on, then OP crueled him and was only a GOP from then.

Respectfully Disagree

[saynta]

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/loc ... e110942197

"Ex-AFL player Nathan Freeman has made a bolting start to the VFL season, having 82 touches in his first two games.

2001.

That’s how far back you have to go to the last time Frankston won the first two games of a VFL season.

Enjoy the look of the ladder, Dolphins fans. Your team is third.

After defeating Coburg in Round 1, the Dolphins stitched up a so-so North Melbourne side in Saturday’s match at Arden St, 16.8 (104) to 5.9 (39).

Again they scored more than 100 points.

And again they had outstanding players in Nathan Freeman and Bailey Lambert.

Former Collingwood and St Kilda wingman Freeman gathered 40 possessions against Coburg and he collected 42 against the Roos.

Of course, those sorts of numbers prompt speculation about a possible return to the AFL for the right-footer.

At 25, and free of the injuries that curtailed his time in the AFL, Freeman is in a “good space’’, according to Dolphins coach Danny Ryan.


Asked about the mid-season draft, Ryan said: “The cold-hearted realist in me says no. The soft-hearted romantic in me says it would be fantastic.

“There would be others in the same boat, like Will (Fordham).

“Nathan has this great mindset at the moment. I’m not saying he‘s freewheeling but he’s really investing in the football club and he’s probably relaxed about where he’s at. He’s enjoying his footy, he’s having fun.

“I’m sure in his heart of hearts he’d love another chance but he’s probably just happy playing some good footy. He’s a genuine go-to at stoppage, a real target for us, and he can break out and use his leg speed.

Lambert kicked five goals and had 17 possessions; he’s taking marks and making his mark as a Dolphin after two years with Richmond VFL where he had little senior opportunity. Fordham had 24 disposals and Anthony Brolic 23.

Ryan was pleased to get four more points but said the Roos were struggling.

They fielded seven AFL players and lost one of them, Phoenix Spicer, early to injury.

“The Coburg win was a great win. Yesterday North were really down on numbers and if I’m brutally honest, we played poorly and still got the chocolates,’’ Ryan said.

“It you looked at the Coburg game and you looked at yesterday, it was chalk and cheese.

“But the flip side is we’ve won two in a row. We had a lot of players down but still won. Freeman played well, Fordham played well, Bailey Lambert’s hit a vein of form.’’

He added: “As I said to the boys after the game, I’m making no apologies for being greedy about our performance. We want to keep learning and keep improving. We’ve got a real focus around the process. The scoreboard will take care of itself. And by the way, we still did a lot right. Our contest was super, our stoppage was good.’’

There’s more than a hint of former gun Dolphins goalkicker Justin Berry about Jack Mentha, and he kicked three goals to go with his brace in Round 1.

Fordham, Nathan Scagliarini and Blake O’Leary kicked two apiece.

But Ryan said the Dolphins’ defence underpinned the victory.

“Our backline was super. That was what really set the game up for us,’’ he said, singling out James Rendell and Taine Barlow.

With Brett O’Hanlon taking ill late in the week, Cal Jones, signed from Sandringham, came in for his first game for the club and performed well as a tall defender.

WA ruck recruit Jeremy Goddard also came in for his debut, replacing Jack Berry (knee).

The Dolphins will get their first look at interstate opposition on Saturday night when they host Aspley (1-1) under lights."

[SaintPav]

How many times have we played Port at Marvel since 2008?

I think it’s just once or twice.

[Impatient Sainter]

Recruiting, recruiting and still bloody recruiting. Its like its our club calling to continually f...up draft choices year after, decade after decade.

We would no doubt have the highest number of players (spuds) to have played single figure games for the club and then go off into obscurity and never heard of again.

[CURLY]

Recruiting, recruiting and still bloody recruiting. Its like its our club calling to continually f...up draft choices year after, decade after decade.

We would no doubt have the highest number of players (spuds) to have played single figure games for the club and then go off into obscurity and never heard of again.

Reckon every club can say the same.

[The Billings Method]

Recruiting, recruiting and still bloody recruiting. Its like its our club calling to continually f...up draft choices year after, decade after decade.

We would no doubt have the highest number of players (spuds) to have played single figure games for the club and then go off into obscurity and never heard of again.

Reckon every club can say the same.

Agree, Curly. Every club has its misses, except ours are the crucial early ones. The Petracca one stings in particular because it is such an obvious howler.

[Yorkeys]

It seems SL agrees and reconstructed the recruiting team. Early wins but may have gone to the SA well once too often. Unless Marlon Pickett's doppelganger is there under the radar. Do we have spotters in the other regions? A successful coach mentioned that the big skill is not so much identifying the stand out but the one that appears to be average but can develop to elite standard. People with that assessment ability are rare; in that regard always wished Bart Cummings supported the Saints. Not that we need a cup horse but a jockey with express speed could be useful - having watched Fantasia and Petruccelle carve us up.

[CURLY]

Recruiting, recruiting and still bloody recruiting. Its like its our club calling to continually f...up draft choices year after, decade after decade.

We would no doubt have the highest number of players (spuds) to have played single figure games for the club and then go off into obscurity and never heard of again.

Reckon every club can say the same.

Agree, Curly. Every club has its misses, except ours are the crucial early ones. The Petracca one stings in particular because it is such an obvious howler.

Again every club other than maybe Geelong can say the exact same thing.

[Joffa Burns]

Recruiting, recruiting and still bloody recruiting. Its like its our club calling to continually f...up draft choices year after, decade after decade.

We would no doubt have the highest number of players (spuds) to have played single figure games for the club and then go off into obscurity and never heard of again.

Reckon every club can say the same.

Agree, Curly. Every club has its misses, except ours are the crucial early ones. The Petracca one stings in particular because it is such an obvious howler.

Agree, GWS & GC have made some of the biggest howler of recruiting decisions in history with top 10 picks, but these were by and large overlooked due to the volume of first round picks they were awarded and many probably failed to develop under their embryonic system. Most of the duds from GWS followed SOS to Carlton

Fair to say whilst all clubs have their blunders we would be very high on the list of biggest stuff ups and recruiting of cooked or injured players over the past decade.

The Bont call is a very long bow as he was clearly a great early call by the dogs and Billings has been a success and a very worthy pick #3, but there is no excuse for the Paddy decision, the due diligence or lack thereof was unforgivable in my opinion.

[bigred]

The list of hindsight blunders is a mile long....everyone has them.... EVERYONE.



2008 Draft:
We could've had-
Premiership players- Ryan Schoenmakers, Luke Shuey, Jack Redden, Jordan Roughead, Liam Sheils......

Premiership players AND All Australians
Dan Hannebery, Dayne Beams

All Australians- Rory Sloane, Hayden Ballantyne, Michael Walters

That's just 1 draft imagine hindsight for 12 more????


2009- Or how about selecting the joke Nicolas Winmar when Max Gawn was still available?
Then in the 2009 Rookie Draft we select Mark Hutchings instead of Alex Silvagni!

2010 - Suns took most of the round 1 gold ( punny, eh?) But we took Jamie Cripps, who was great ( but NEVER wanted to leave home and we traded away after 1 season) . But we did pass on Scott Lycett who's last 4 seasons of above avg or elite ruck work would not be handy right now at all.
Then in the 2011 Rookie Draft we thought:
Thomas Curren was waaaaayyyy better than Jason Johannisen!

2011 - started off with SWEET ASS trades of Tom Lynch but we got Terry Milera and Tommy Walsh, so yeah.

2011 National Draft we took Seb Ross instead of premiership player Elliot Yeo or recent trade Brad Hill ( we may have won this one!)

We did pick Daniel Markworth, Jimmy Webster and Jack Newnes, Jay Lever, Beau Maister....

2011 Rookie Draft was a crap shoot for everyone... we got Sam Dunnell


2012 - we lost Brendan Goddard and Jamie Cripps but scored Trent Darby Lane, Tom Hickey & Tom Lee

National Draft - we gave up pick 13 for Tom Hickey - if we had it we could've selected Brody Grundy ( but he's a chump, right?), we got pick 24&25 and smashed it with Spencer White and Nathan Wright..we grabbed Brodie Murdoch and Josh Saunders funny thing is Tim Membrey was still available.

Sure we could've had Jack Viney or several other players still in the best 22 for their teams...but we nailed it with Spencer White so I feel ok.
2013 Rookie Draft - we didn't see anything so passed on Sam Naismith and Zac Williams

2013 - we lost McEvoy for pick 18 (Dunstan) but gained Longer, let Dal Santo walk away...picked up Bruce and Delaney as well.

National Draft... of course...we picked Billings instead Bontempelli...then Dunstan and Acres over Brad Crouch, Hartung, Merritt, Lobb, Fantasia, Nankervis, Sicily and so many more

2014 - we lost Gwilt, traded away Stanley for pick 21 which netted nothing.. whoops Hugh Goddard.

With pick #1 we took McMartin over Petracca, Brayshaw, DeGoey, Ahern, Cockatoo, Lever, Wright and on and on.

We picked Daniel McKenzie at 22 over Jack Steele.
We took Lonie over Mitch McGovern and Caleb Daniel

2015 Rookie Draft - we took Jack Sinclair and he was the cream

2015-
Trade: we traded pick #5 for Jake, Essendon used it on Parrish but we could've selected...Rioli, Curnow, Weideman, McKay or Ah Chee.

Draft: We got Jade Gresham at #18 and wasted pick #40 on Brandon White instead of Jack Silvagni...we picked up Bailey Rice.

2016 Rookie - we saw gold in Nick O'Kearney whilst rejecting Tom Papley

2016 Trade: got in the Mighty Jack Steele and robbed Hawthorn in a trade swap!!!!

2016 National - Ben Long round 2, Josh Battle, Ed Phillips

2017 Rookie Draft - we got the legendary Rowan Marshall!!

2017 Trades: 3rd rounder for Logan Austin

Here's a gem:
2017 Draft - St Kilda select Hunter Clark, then Nick Coffield (using Hawthorns picks) but could've had Tim Kelly - who Geelong selected 15 picks later! I like Coffield but anyone who thinks Tim Kelly isn't 100x better needs to immediately call for an ambulance, you're not quite right in the cranium.

We took Clarivino at #35 instead of Constable
We got Ben Paton as well

2018 Rookie - Doultan Langlands and Lewis Pierce ( wasnt bad but we now know there was better)

Trade: traded Hickey and got Hannebury & Kent, swapped a bunch of picks with teams

National - Max King, Jack Bytel, Nick Hind, Robbie Young...we did solid not much better available

2019 Rookie/B/ Supplemental - Callum Wilkie, Alabaskis, Marsh and Rowe

2019 Mid Season - Jack Mayo

2019 Trade - Newnes went in Free agency, cheated GWS in a pick swap!, got Howard and Ryder, lost Steven to Cats, traded Blake Acres & picks for Hill, gave away Josh Bruce for pick 32&51, got Butler & Jones for pick swaps....so we essentially traded Bruce for Jones ( we got SCREWED).


2019 National Draft - we got Ryan Byrnes

2020 Rookie - Jack Bell


2020- trades - we traded in Jack Higgins and out Nick Hind, swapped picks, in free agency we got McKearnon and Crouch.
Frawley came out of retirement.

2020 - national draft - Matthew McLeod-Allison, Tom Highmore


2021 rookie - we passed
2021 supplementary draft - Hunter, Wood

Great post.

However every club has a list like that. Identical in most years.
And who knows if we took a lot of those names if they would have thrived under the Dwarf or Richo.
How many would have got homesick like that peaheart Cripps?
It is far from an easy gig.

The Pelican and Trout were dead set cabbages at this game.

[Wayne42]

The Pelican still thinks of himself as a draft guru, one day he'll realise why he's no longer in the industry.

[The Billings Method]

Although I'm happy with Clark and Coffield, we passed on Aaron Naughton. That could haunt us in the future.

[B.M]

Again

A good selection by the dogs

But Clark and Coffield were good selections by StK

[SaintPav]

2015-
Trade: we traded pick #5 for Jake, Essendon used it on Parrish but we could've selected...Rioli, Curnow, Weideman, McKay or Ah Chee.

Draft: We got Jade Gresham at #18 and wasted pick #40 on Brandon White instead of Jack Silvagni...we picked up Bailey Rice.

Essendon used their pick 5 on Aaron Francis who is serviceable.

We got Jake and pick 18 which we used on Gresham.

I think we did ok here.

[Impatient Sainter]

Although I'm happy with Clark and Coffield, we passed on Aaron Naughton. That could haunt us in the future.

The scary thing about there selections, was our recruiters both 2ould develop into midfielders. Once again recruiting players on their potential rather than proven form, it has shown year after year to be faulty.

I differ on others opinions that every club has failures at the draft. The successful clubs in the past 20 years suggests that those clubs had hits with 70-80% of their draft selections and trades. We would be lucky to be above 40-50% sucess rate, with some abysmal 1st round decisions that hamstrings clubs like ours for decades.

[Yorkeys]

Appointing Watters as coach? appointing Richo? Incompetent negs with Ross - although him going was probably ok however left us clutching. Desperation stakes from there on.