Of course, the draft is an inexact science. That is why when you choose the draft as a CLEAR path, you blanket bomb it. Its all a numbers game in reality. You will have busts at the top end, wins in the middle and rookie rounds. That is why, when you go with say picks 10, 28, and 40 in the draft, you are less likely to succeed than if you have picks 10, 14, 20, 28, 35 and etc. That is where a CLEAR path, and more importantly, brave decisions come into play. We didn't get lucky with our 7-11 team. We Blanket Bombed the 99 and 01 drafts. Had hits and misses, but succeeded because we had heaps of picks. That wasn't luck, that was completely by design. Hard decisions were made. Mick Mansfield was turned into Chapman. Bizzell netted Kelly. Brave decisions. Give me a brave decision we've made in recent years?
This is relevant at the draft AND trade table. Could we turn Blicavs into something more valuable via trade? Could we turn the Bulldogs head with Guthrie for Stringer? Should we have traded out champions for better draft picks post '13? We are trying to balance an aggressive rebuild with a conservative approach. Not the way to do it, if you ask me. We pissed off plenty of champions in the end anyway, some finished careers elsewhere for zero benefit to US. Players are pragmatically seeking alternatives like Christensen, Mots, Menz (as is their right). Contracted players are walking when it suits (Caddy). R1's are being lost for peanuts because of poor development (Brown, Smedts, Lang?, Thurlow?). **** that, time to get our shit together again.