There is still an awful lot of talent there. IMO they have done better than Gold Coast.
By focusing on bringing in so many young players through the draft it was inevitable that they would lose a lot of youngsters.
They are doing exactly the right moves now.
Their strategy was never to keep all of the top end draftees from 2011/2012 to dominate in 5 years. There is no way they could keep them all with regards to opportunities.
There strategy was to go as hard as they could in the draft and then give away expendable top end talent for future draft picks to ensure they were more balanced.
They have traded Jaksch, Wiley, O'rouke, Tyson, Taylor Adams for either top end draft picks (they have 4, 6, 7 this year) or really good established talent (Shaw, Griffen).
They will be more of a powerhouse than GC who went more of a win now. That side falls away fairly quickly when the GOAT goes missing.
I agree. They draft really well and I haven't really rated the players who have left (Taylor Adams, Jaksch, O'Rourke, Wiley, Aylett, Edwards) but they still manage to get good value for them. Boyd was the exception but there are still big question marks over his head. I haven't seen anything at AFL level that's impressed me.
They've also recruited some great senior players in Davis, Ward, Shaw, Mumford, Griffen, Patfull. Imagine if they'd got Franklin as well.
The drafted talent in the team is scary (* - extremely scary):
Cameron* (AA, 3rd in the coleman)
Treloar*
Shiel*
Hoskin-Elliot*
Kelly*
Smith
Greene
Not to mention what they'll do with 4, 6 and 7 this year.
GWS's development has been poor. They do not resource it like other clubs. They simply have not put into place development staff, hence structures to maximize the talent. There was analysis of this on one if the footy shows and the comparision was telling. They also discussed Miles in particular.
Talent is only about half the equation.
Spot on. I think they compared them to the Hawks. Years of experience per development coaching teams. The difference was staggering.