threenewpadlocks
Brownlow Medallist
Marginal gains matter at all levels, I'm not sure I'd be measuring in solely on a lengthy career or not. Just as we'd all like an upgrade on Roarke Smith or Will Hayes for marginal gains on the team, in turn, I'm not sure I'd like what our options would have been in the absence of either, but they're worse, otherwise they would have been picked in the first place. There's value in finding yourself good enough to get picked, provided there's more than about 25 fit blokes on an AFL list.Not sure if that's tongue in cheek or not. But just in case it's not ...
When we recruit mature agers from the VFL we are aiming to find those rare genuine success stories like Liam Picken (198 games), Matty Boyd (292 games) or Dale Morris (253 games). All three played in the 2016 flag.
I have no problem with us giving Gowers, Hayes, Cavarra, Scott etc a chance but we should be churning through those types as quickly as we can assess their ceiling is not quite up to AFL standard.
Whether they exceeded the game averages or "expectations" is immaterial. You expect the majority of those types won't make it.
You measure your success on the players who play 100 games or more, or else make a big impact in some other way, such as James Podsiadly, a mature-ager who only played 80 odd games for Geelong but kicked 52 goals as a member of their premiership side in 2011.