FM0226
Team Captain
I really don't understand why you keep saying that pick 26 was our last live pick that has nothing to do with the argument we took the best available player with our pick that was Brett Meredith just because we dont have anymore picks doesnt mean we just throw it away on some dud who was never going to get drafted. Pick 26 is slightly different to pick 76 in that 50 players are no longer available at pick 76.
If your theory is correct lets just say a team has two first round selections and a father son player with their last making their last live pick about pick 13 or 14 should say ah well its our last live pick we might as well pick some random dud who more than likley will never get a game.
I'm by no means saying Meredith will be gun but the chance are he has a 95% better chance than Gourdis and Gaertner at this stage.
It's not different because if we don't have any more picks to spend on a prospect that for example people rate in the 50s. With our past record, say in the last 6,7 years, players we rate as a top 30 prospect has roughly the same rate of success as some we regard as a 40 - 60 prospect. So why don't we take a punt if a lot of people regard Bird as a top 30 midfielder anyway? Under normal circumstances, Meredith would have been a good choice - but given the age of our spine and the lop-sidedness of small/mediums in terms of the younger players in the list, it was a very chance for us to actually take a risk to fill a glaring need in 2, three years? - and I would have certainly went for Scott Simpson or Gourdis over Meredith.
Meredith could well turn into a decent player - because is he really going to be a lot better than the young small/mediums we have on the list now? - we have a lot of them and they will be directly compete for a place in the side - Well, he better be. And remember that we also traded for Mattner - which is essentially a medium defender/midfield flanker.
To me, that means we traded Schneider for a second round pick and drafted 4 mediums and a KP in this draft - with the KP having the least potential of the lot. My frustration is not on young Meredith, but on the insistence of a recruiting strategy that has brought us very little in terms of starring talent the past 5,6 years.
I also have doubts about our recruiter's judgement of talent, especially in small/mediums - we have invested 3 top ten picks (Fosdike, Bolton, McVeigh), 2 first round picks (Willougby and Daniel O'Keefe), 2 second round picks (Moore and Schmidt) and our entire 2005 draft on small/mediums - and the AA level midfielder is still nowhere to be seen using this strategy. Instead, that was a need for us to trade for a medium flanker and even with the fact of having a small rover in the bag before the draft starts - we picked up another good midfield prospect in the first round.
And with all the talk about the draft being a lottery (to me, anything outside the top 13/14 is a 'complete' lottery) - still drafted Meredith over Scott Simpson? When we have a combination of ageing KP players and a distinct lack of depth in young KP prospects? It's puzzling.



