Scollop wrote: ↑Mon 27 Jun 2022 3:48amJust to clarify. I agree you need to 'bring in elite kids through the draft.' Let's have some faith in our current development staff and our coaches at Sandysuss wrote: ↑Sun 26 Jun 2022 12:31pmI agree with this but also add that I don't think Lethlean and his team had much of a choice. The problem with our list goes back to Trout and friends who ran it into the ground.
We had to do some moneyball trading to get competitive again and I think some of those trades / FA picks have been wins (e.g. Howard, Ryder, Higgins, Crouch), while others have not (e.g. Jones). Others are somewhere in between - e.g. Hill and Butler (though Butler is looking worse as time goes on).
I have no problem with the current coaching and list strategy, but it's going to take an eternity to correct the woeful drafting and recruitment of that earlier era.
We need to keep turning the list over, bringing in elite kids through the draft, while making better / more selective trading choices. It will take time.
...but I don't agree that we need to keep looking for players who are on the fringe with other teams or delisted free agents that other teams are discarding. The Higgins trade was done recently.
Was there a desperate need to replace Lonie or were we thinking Higgins was going to play in the midfield?
Why did we need another small forward after we'd already recruited Butler and we had Gresh, JB, Long and Kent, with Lonie still on the list and other draftees able to competently play in the forward line ( Mich Owens being the most recent example when he played the role of small forward ). Hill and others have also competently played in the forward line
'Butler and we had Gresh, JB, Long and Kent, Lonie....they were all sh1te and still are....yes, I included the glory boys everyone wants them to be Brownlow lads but can't get it right two games straight...Gresham & JB are never going to be A grade. Their choice not mine. I wanted every Saint to excel but choices, their body, bad luck....whatever...it's not happening. We NEED a Milne....gotta have him. Higgins was an option for cheap. The two brain surgeries set him back & his comeback over last year and this has been a rollercoaster of awesome then raining turds.
Trade ins are as risky as drafts....some are insane value...e.g. Steele whilst others not so much.
You gotta try, every club has to try.
It boils down to culture. I have said it a million times ....Costa brought in Character First program ( yep it's a Christian based Diddy) I'm not saying it's the way....but he did it. He lived and choked it down the throats of the board, then management, then coaches....and Thompson really struggled to accept it ( for obvious reasons). He did it. He preached it. It worked even though he privately struggled. Chris grabbed it and ran....he smashed it in the gob of every player in 2010 and it still keeps the club on the straight.
