Anyone remember Olly? (Rookie picks ain't picks boss!)

[plugger66]

Olly Trand was one of our Rookie picks in 1999.
Like so many others he never played a game.
In fact for 10 years we pretty much wasted all our Rookie picks apart from Milne and (Ivy) Moyle.

The Rookie draft started in 1996.
In the first 10 years we only had 22 picks who played a total of 282 games for an ave game tally of 13.
If you exclude Milne it drops to 112 games for an ave of just 5 games each.
15 of the 22 never even played !!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the details …

Year Pick Rookie (Games played)
1996 No picks
1997 15 Lachlan Brown (0)
1998 10 James Gowans (4)
1998 25 Chris Gowans (0)
1998 39 Garth Pickford (0)
1998 49 Chad Davis (31)
1999 7 Mark Wittison (0)
1999 23 Stephen Milne (170+)
1999 39 Olly Trand (0)
1999 52 Brett Moyle (48)
2000 1 Chris Oliver (0)
2000 17 Justin Berry (0)
2001 2 Josh Dicketts (0)
2001 18 Ben Schwarze (11)
2001 34 Chris Jones (0)
2002 2 Allan Murray (15)
2002 18 Jordan Barham (0)
2003 6 Dylan Pfitzner (0)
2003 22 Nick Stone (3)
2004 14 Luke Mullins (0)
2004 30 Edward McDonnell (0)
2005 14 Cathal Corr (0)
2005 30 Dylan Pfitzner (0)

Whilst we were busy passing or picking duds, we could have had
1996 Bassett, Mark Johnson, Ward, Russell Robertson, Moorcroft, James McDonald, Mal Michael,
1997 Dean Rioli, Tivendale, Fletcher, Lockyer, Mark Johnson
1998 Kingsley, Grover, Kirk, Knobel
1999 Carroll, Kennelly, Tuck, Brogan, Cox,
2000 Osborne, Harding, Hayden, Campbell, Jolly, Lovett-Murray, Rooke, Copeland
2001 Thorton, Lynch, Miller, Boyd, Sandilands, Rutten, Mattner
2002 Sewell, Skipworth, Patfull, Maxwell, Osborne, Carroll
2003 Davey, Foley, Pratt, Lovett-Murray, Lovett
2004 Danyle Pearce, Clinton Young
2005 Priddis, Stiller


Then in 2006, as GT left the building, we seemed to change our attitude.
We began to take the Rookie draft seriously.
In the last 3 drafts we have taken 16 players (compared to 22 in the prev 10 years).
Too early to make definitive calls on them yet, but already they have collectively played 89 games and several look promising.

Year Pick Rookie (Games played)
2006 9 Clint Jones (31+)
2006 25 Luke Van Rheenen (0)
2006 39 Robert Eddy (14+)
2006 51 James Wall (0)
2006 58 Jayden Attard (20+)
2007 8 Glenn Chivers (0)
2007 24 Luke Miles (0+)
2007 39 Andrew McQualter (17+)
2007 51 Khan Haretuku (0+)
2008 13 Zac Dawson (5+)
2008 29 Tom Simpkin (0+)
2008 44 Brad Howard (2+)
2008 58 Steven Gaertner (0+)
2008 71 Ross Tungatalum (0+)
2008 80 Samuel McGarry (0+)
2008 84 Blake McGrath (0+)

The point is that whilst West Coast and Hawthorn saw the value of the Rookie draft years ago we have only just begun to see the value and try to leverage it.

Great for our future.
But what a waste of 10 years !

A club MUST pay out at least 92.5% of the salary cap.
Any payment under 100% improves the club's bottom line.

Rookies must be paid a minimum of $33,200 p.a.
This is NOT included in the salary cap.
Like all other staff at the club, if you can do without them, not having them improves the club's bottom line.

At the end of last year 2008 - officially the 2009 rookie draft.
Brisbane passed on 3 rookie zone picks
Adelaide passed on 1 rookie pick
Bulldogs passed on 2 rookie pick
Richmond passed on 1 rookie pick
Port Adelaide passed on 1 rookie pick

Each of these clubs has saved money.
The Bulldogs publicly gave their reason before the rookie draft as money saving.

Just because Thomas said he wasn't interested in rookies doesn't mean he was.
It could well be that Butterss gave him no choice.

I am with you on this. Budget was a major problem. Also it wasnt as if we didnt get rookies it was more the point that they were no good. Dont think we can blame the coach for the players being no good. There is no doubt that the club has spent a hell of a lot more money on recruiting and player development in the last 2-3 years. I think that is more to do with us no being in the red as much as it has to do with us having a different coach. Now if we could only get some good players from our top picks.