because Brisbane finished 17th, 17th and 15th the season before that enabling them to load up on picks
Aside from freaks like Fyfe/Judd/Bont who peaked when they were early 20s, almost all other elite players take awhile to come in. Dustin Martin's best season was 6 years into his career. So even if North drafted the best player in the current draft, there is still another 4-5 years to wait for him to come good.
Did they really do that much better from the pre Fagan days as North have from the pre Noble days from a draft pick perspective?
Andrews, mcgluggage, berry, hipwood, who else?
Remember they used a pick for beams, took schache at 2, used a pick on Christensen. Also the 2017 draft (raynor, starchevich, bailey) was fagans first year, so on a like for like basis, the 2021 draft for north.
And Cameron/Neale were traded in post Fagan. Showing how talent is drawn to clubs on the rise with a father figure type coach.
So compare Andrews, Mcluggage, berry and hipwood with
Simpkin, Larkey, McKay, LDU, Thomas, Zurhaar, Stephenson, Taylor, Scott, Hayden, Perez, Comben, Xerri, Pick 2 and pick 11 plus 4 or so more speculative draft picks.
I have probably missed some for the lions but it looks in Norths favour to me, not withstanding the lions have Andrews