We gotta hit the draft, hard

[Sainternist]

Geelong have barely used the draft in 20 years

They pick up good players

Develop astute picks

And stay relevant

Have not rebuilt since 2001 - 3 flags in that time

Sydney the same - 2 flags

Geelong also have the luxury of the Falcons at their disposal. Geelong Falcons is basically their farm.

Credit where credit’s due, Sydney have recruited extremely well. But they’ve also had the AFL bending over backwards for them since 1993!

[bangaulegend]

We gave up very little for Jones and especially Hannebery

Paid market value for Howard

Got Ryder for free

Paid nothing for Butler and Kent

Did a smart deal for Higgins

Paid WAY overs for Hill

Yeah we gave up little but still payed him a ridiculous amount of money considering his physical condition

[Life Long Saint]

Geelong also have the luxury of the Falcons at their disposal. Geelong Falcons is basically their farm.

Nope. Every team has access to Geelong Falcons players. We've drafted many over the years.

[CURLY]

Geelong have barely used the draft in 20 years

They pick up good players

Develop astute picks

And stay relevant

Have not rebuilt since 2001 - 3 flags in that time

Sydney the same - 2 flags

Have a massive advantage of the return home factor down there. Also remained relevent due to the gift of Tom Hawkins.

[CURLY]

Geelong also have the luxury of the Falcons at their disposal. Geelong Falcons is basically their farm.

Nope. Every team has access to Geelong Falcons players. We've drafted many over the years.

They just want to get back to Geelong.

[Life Long Saint]

Geelong also have the luxury of the Falcons at their disposal. Geelong Falcons is basically their farm.

Nope. Every team has access to Geelong Falcons players. We've drafted many over the years.

They just want to get back to Geelong.

https://www.draftguru.com.au/from/geelong_falcons
The facts don't support your statement

[CURLY]

Geelong also have the luxury of the Falcons at their disposal. Geelong Falcons is basically their farm.

Nope. Every team has access to Geelong Falcons players. We've drafted many over the years.

They just want to get back to Geelong.

https://www.draftguru.com.au/from/geelong_falcons
The facts don't support your statement

Dangerfield Dalhaus Higgins

[Sainternist]

Geelong also have the luxury of the Falcons at their disposal. Geelong Falcons is basically their farm.

Nope. Every team has access to Geelong Falcons players. We've drafted many over the years.

Yep, but many recruits drafted from the Falcons other than Geelong often end up at Kardinia Park, e.g. Dangerfield, Jeremy Cameron, Gary Rohan and Jack Steven (remember him?). There’s no denying that Geelong’s affiliation with the Falcons has been an incredible asset for them over the years.

[Life Long Saint]

Geelong also have the luxury of the Falcons at their disposal. Geelong Falcons is basically their farm.

Nope. Every team has access to Geelong Falcons players. We've drafted many over the years.

Yep, but many recruits drafted from the Falcons other than Geelong often end up at Kardinia Park, e.g. Dangerfield, Jeremy Cameron, Gary Rohan and Jack Steven (remember him?). There’s no denying that Geelong’s affiliation with the Falcons has been an incredible asset for them over the years.

Seriously?
You've named four players. One of those players had no affiliation with the Falcons. Jeremy Cameron played for the Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup.
So that leaves three.
Jack Steven was at end of career when he went back.
Gary Rohan and Patrick Dangerfield were at interstate clubs when they moved back.

There is absolutely no proof to back up the claim that Geelong use the Falcons to farm their players.
The list of players that have come back is:
James McLure (3 games)
Chris Hemley (0 games)
Shaun Baxter (0 games)
Brent Grgic (13 games)
David Loats (1 game)
David Haynes (19 games)
Sam Hunt (0 games)
Joel Reynolds (0 games)
Jonathan Simpkin (4 games) before moving to Hawthorn then Essendon
Shaun Higgins (23* games)
Lachie Henderson (89 games)
Jack Steven (9 games)
Patrick Dangerfield (142* games)
Gary Rohan (64 games)
Cameron Delaney (0 games)

Not the problem that you think it is.
Out of 159 players drafted from the Geelong Falcons, that's your list there. 15 players!
And really, Higgins had already been to two clubs and nobody else really wanted him.

[B.M]

They’ve just managed their list well

Doesn’t matter who wants to go there, they still have the same cap as us!

They have a payment structure there

The key is to pay the right players the big contracts

Basically we have Hill on 900 & Hannebery on 800 and we pay 100% of the Cap and a bunch of GOPs overpaid

They have Danger, Stewart, Selwood, Hawkins, Cameron, Blicavs, Guthrie, Duncan, Parfitt
And they pay the same amount of wages as us.

Good management vs mis-management

[cwrcyn]

Geelong have 16 players aged between 29 and 34. Most of the players within that group are their key playmakers.

If that was St Kilda, you'd be howling from the rooftops at how lop-sided our list is and how poorly we've managed the age demographic of our list.

[cwrcyn]

And for all that had not delivered a premiership

[cwrcyn]

In the past 10 years

[Life Long Saint]

And for all that had not delivered a premiership

They're clearly doing something right. And they're doing it better than us.

Since 2004, they've missed the finals twice!
They've finished top four 13 times. And, barring disaster, will add one to that this season.
They've made 5 grand finals and won 3.
They've made Prelims in 04, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, and there's no reason to think they won't be there again this season.

They have two big advantgages over us.
1. They have a genuine home ground advantage at Kardinia Park.
2. They have a great player development program by using their VFL team effectively where they can develop their players, their way. Like shark's teeth, when one falls, there's another ready to take their place.

We will never have the first one. But if we're not dong everything we can to have the second one, we're never going to catch the top teams.

[CURLY]

And for all that had not delivered a premiership

They're clearly doing something right. And they're doing it better than us.

Since 2004, they've missed the finals twice!
They've finished top four 13 times. And, barring disaster, will add one to that this season.
They've made 5 grand finals and won 3.
They've made Prelims in 04, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, and there's no reason to think they won't be there again this season.

They have two big advantgages over us.
1. They have a genuine home ground advantage at Kardinia Park.
2. They have a great player development program by using their VFL team effectively where they can develop their players, their way. Like shark's teeth, when one falls, there's another ready to take their place.

We will never have the first one. But if we're not dong everything we can to have the second one, we're never going to catch the top teams.

They have Danger and Cameron walk into their club two of the best players in the AFL.

[Life Long Saint]

And for all that had not delivered a premiership

They're clearly doing something right. And they're doing it better than us.

Since 2004, they've missed the finals twice!
They've finished top four 13 times. And, barring disaster, will add one to that this season.
They've made 5 grand finals and won 3.
They've made Prelims in 04, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, and there's no reason to think they won't be there again this season.

They have two big advantgages over us.
1. They have a genuine home ground advantage at Kardinia Park.
2. They have a great player development program by using their VFL team effectively where they can develop their players, their way. Like shark's teeth, when one falls, there's another ready to take their place.

We will never have the first one. But if we're not dong everything we can to have the second one, we're never going to catch the top teams.

They have Danger and Cameron walk into their club two of the best players in the AFL.

They didn't walk in at all!
Geelong gave up picks 9 & 28 and a player for Danger.
They gave up three first round picks 13, 15, and 20 for Cameron and got two future second round picks back.

[CURLY]

And for all that had not delivered a premiership

They're clearly doing something right. And they're doing it better than us.

Since 2004, they've missed the finals twice!
They've finished top four 13 times. And, barring disaster, will add one to that this season.
They've made 5 grand finals and won 3.
They've made Prelims in 04, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, and there's no reason to think they won't be there again this season.

They have two big advantgages over us.
1. They have a genuine home ground advantage at Kardinia Park.
2. They have a great player development program by using their VFL team effectively where they can develop their players, their way. Like shark's teeth, when one falls, there's another ready to take their place.

We will never have the first one. But if we're not dong everything we can to have the second one, we're never going to catch the top teams.

They have Danger and Cameron walk into their club two of the best players in the AFL.

They didn't walk in at all!
Geelong gave up picks 9 & 28 and a player for Danger.
They gave up three first round picks 13, 15, and 20 for Cameron and got two future second round picks back.

Big deal how they got there they walked in they were going nowhere else.

[Life Long Saint]

Big deal how they got there they walked in they were going nowhere else.

Still don't see your point.
Dougal Howard, Brad Hill, Matt Crouch, and Zak Jones were going nowhere else.
Adam Cerra was going nowhere else.
Tom Lynch was going nowhere else other than Richmond (and as a free agent).
Steven May and Jake Lever were going nowhere else other than Melbourne.
Joe Daniher was going nowhere else.

[asiu]

Treloar

even nominated us

got to give the catters a rap
as a club
they've shown us who's our daddy

[CURLY]

Big deal how they got there they walked in they were going nowhere else.

Still don't see your point.
Dougal Howard, Brad Hill, Matt Crouch, and Zak Jones were going nowhere else.
Adam Cerra was going nowhere else.
Tom Lynch was going nowhere else other than Richmond (and as a free agent).
Steven May and Jake Lever were going nowhere else other than Melbourne.
Joe Daniher was going nowhere else.

They've remained in the top 4 for numerous reason that we cant compete with.

The gift of Selwood and Hawkins.
The walk in of two of the best players in the AFL Cameron and Danger

[cwrcyn]

Correct CURLY. They've also had some remarkably durable players.


We definitely need to have our own VFL team for development purposes, too

[Life Long Saint]

Big deal how they got there they walked in they were going nowhere else.

Still don't see your point.
Dougal Howard, Brad Hill, Matt Crouch, and Zak Jones were going nowhere else.
Adam Cerra was going nowhere else.
Tom Lynch was going nowhere else other than Richmond (and as a free agent).
Steven May and Jake Lever were going nowhere else other than Melbourne.
Joe Daniher was going nowhere else.

They've remained in the top 4 for numerous reason that we cant compete with.

The gift of Selwood and Hawkins.
The walk in of two of the best players in the AFL Cameron and Danger

How on Earth was Selwood a gift?

[Saintmatt]

The shame with re-signing Ratten is we will miss finals this year and that means we’ve gone backwards every year he’s been coach
Not a ringing endorsement for rushing to re-sign him
The reality is the club came out and said this year we’d play finals as the “window opens” to justify signing Ratten we should be top 4-6 right now. We’ve failed and we aren’t - what irks is the clubs BS rhetoric isn’t matched by results and we are treated as fools.
We’ve been sold a pup.
This Board and Bassat have been borderline incompetent
It’s really 2 schools of thought now:
1. We are only 1-2 A grade players away (probably mids) and then this side could leap frog into top 4/Premiership contention
Or
2. We need to take a longer view and a step back, recognise that trading in players to top up hasn’t worked and draft hard to build a genuine core of talent ground up

Neither is guaranteed - nothing is but my gut feel right now is the list (and current coaching staff) are not good enough to jag a Premiership and certainly not good enough for a sustained run at the top.

IMHO - it's option option 1 OR 2 .. it's a combination of both. Melb drafted a core and then recruited Lever and May as their key defensive pillars + B Brown. Richmond did the same and then were able to recruit Prestia and Lynch.

The difference with us is that, we drafted largely a group potatoes in the first place and then the players we recruited have been poor to average (Higgins, Jones, Butler. Richmond drafted Rance, Astbury, Grimes, Martin, Cotchin, Jack R, Graham, Baker etc then Prestia and Lynch are both A grade cream on top. Melb drafted Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Bowey, Wiedeman etc then their recruits are cream on top.

We never drafted a core of players good enough to become a gun group in the first place and then our recruits haven't been A grade.

[CURLY]

Big deal how they got there they walked in they were going nowhere else.

Still don't see your point.
Dougal Howard, Brad Hill, Matt Crouch, and Zak Jones were going nowhere else.
Adam Cerra was going nowhere else.
Tom Lynch was going nowhere else other than Richmond (and as a free agent).
Steven May and Jake Lever were going nowhere else other than Melbourne.
Joe Daniher was going nowhere else.

They've remained in the top 4 for numerous reason that we cant compete with.

The gift of Selwood and Hawkins.
The walk in of two of the best players in the AFL Cameron and Danger

How on Earth was Selwood a gift?

They wanted a key forward and got gifted Hawkins meaning they got a free hit with Selwood. It has set them up.

[Life Long Saint]

Big deal how they got there they walked in they were going nowhere else.

Still don't see your point.
Dougal Howard, Brad Hill, Matt Crouch, and Zak Jones were going nowhere else.
Adam Cerra was going nowhere else.
Tom Lynch was going nowhere else other than Richmond (and as a free agent).
Steven May and Jake Lever were going nowhere else other than Melbourne.
Joe Daniher was going nowhere else.

They've remained in the top 4 for numerous reason that we cant compete with.

The gift of Selwood and Hawkins.
The walk in of two of the best players in the AFL Cameron and Danger

How on Earth was Selwood a gift?

They wanted a key forward and got gifted Hawkins meaning they got a free hit with Selwood. It has set them up.

Oh, please!
Six other clubs had a pick before Geelong selected Selwood.
So every club that has picked up a father/son selection over the journey was gifted that selection?