All valid points of course and as you mentioned we cut a player that brings speed which is something most players on the list you provided dont have.OK, I'll be specific. At the end of last season, before the draft and after Dusty/Kelly fell through ...
Known:
Cunners
Higgins
Ziebell as a mid
The fact that the top 5-6 in the draft were all mids
Gibson gone
Unkown
Whether Jacobs's foot would come good
Anderson
Whether Dumont could take the next step
Whether Ahern would be any good
Whether Garner would see much mid time
Whether Mountford would continue to develop
Whether J Williams would continue to develop
How much midfield time Simpkin would get
Ziebell as a forward
What we were going to draft after the 1st round
And that's leaving out Clarke whose natural position is probably wing, McDonald who we all expected would keep improving on his 2017, Waite and Wood who were able to play spells through the wing as mobile talls.
We then added:
LDU
Walker as a mid-forward
Hayden
Hartung
So there were about 19 players in the midfield mix this year and we used all but four of them. Williams and Hartung are gone, ironically the two fastest. If we don't get Polec or Gaff we'll just run Dumont and LDU on the wings with most likely McDonald, Wood, Walker, Clarke spending some time there.
Let's face it, Billy was indeed "surprisingly ok" but he averaged 17 disposals a game and the only teams he got 20+ against were Carlton, GC and St Kilda. It's fair enough to believe he was that far down the depth chart once Dumont stepped up and Walker looked the goods in his few games.