I suggest that you have a look at the drafts around the ones that you mentioned and consider what midfielders we took.
When Ben was drafted (in hindsight a massive blunder, more costly that Paddy or any other draft misses that we've had other that Ball over Judd), we had a midfield chockers with AA's. We also had a couple of old ruck men on their last legs (King & Gardy).
In Paddy's case we'd taken 3 mids (Billings, Dunstan and Acres) the previous year. The following year we took Gresham. That doesn't really fit in with the 'adverse to draft mids' thinking though does it?
Last year we drafted the absolute best available... the year before we drafted one pure mid (Clark) and one who's a genuine mid/utility (Coffield). He played as a mid all through his junior career up until the U18s.
So that's Billings, Dunstan, Acres, Gresham, Clark & Coffield drafted in the top 20 alongside of Paddy & Max... a 3 to 1 ratio of mids to talls.
When Ben was drafted (in hindsight a massive blunder, more costly that Paddy or any other draft misses that we've had other that Ball over Judd), we had a midfield chockers with AA's. We also had a couple of old ruck men on their last legs (King & Gardy).
In Paddy's case we'd taken 3 mids (Billings, Dunstan and Acres) the previous year. The following year we took Gresham. That doesn't really fit in with the 'adverse to draft mids' thinking though does it?
Last year we drafted the absolute best available... the year before we drafted one pure mid (Clark) and one who's a genuine mid/utility (Coffield). He played as a mid all through his junior career up until the U18s.
So that's Billings, Dunstan, Acres, Gresham, Clark & Coffield drafted in the top 20 alongside of Paddy & Max... a 3 to 1 ratio of mids to talls.
Dunstan was the only true mid, Blake was a utility and Billings was a half forward who some were worried would never transition to a mid. Clarke and Coffield again both had stints at half back and at least Hunter had some serious exposed midfield time, Coffield was back forward and middle.

