This year may be disappointing Vdubs, but it has been quite predictably so.
List management has been questionable for some time - not poor, exactly, but questionable.
I reckon being a so-called 'destination club' post-flags clouded the List Management team's judgement - just because players were open to coming to Geelong doesn't mean we had to take them all at the expense of investing in youth.
I'm not talking about Dangerfield, obviously - that was a blue-moon opportunity and the club was right to pursue the chance to bring him onboard.
Then again, our drafting has been pretty poor for a while now, with our first selections being used questionably :
#15 on Smedts in 2010 - injuries, indifferent form and the club not sure if they wanted him to play forward or back
#32 on Hamling in 2011 - never given so much as an opportunity, the club went with the likes of Rivers (who was ok for 2 seasons)
#16 on Thurlow in 2012 - a knee injury along the way, but has never put together a string of solid games
#16 on Lang in 2013 - undersized midfielder who'd suffered a broken leg in the lead-up to the draft; showed glimpses here and there but not enough
#10 on Cockatoo in 2014 - played one good game in a draft year ruined by injuries. AFL career has followed suit.
#59 on Gardner in 2015 - not a high selection, but will probably go the same way as Hamling, behind senior players and given no chance to develop at senior level.
#26 on Parfitt in 2016 - developing, can't complain with his progress
#22 on Fogarty last year - long way to go for Fogarty, too early to judge but I have reservations
So even if we'd gone in a different direction and hit the draft a bit harder, there's no guarantee we'd have fared any better.
As for Chris Scott, you may be inclined to give him a pass, but I don't - he's done ok to have the team winning enough H&A games to qualify for finals most years - and some years we were seemingly in a great position to make an assault on the flag - but come finals time the team has been exposed as finals frauds; e.g. losing to Freo in Melbourne twice (once at Geelong!!), blowing a double chance two years running (13/14) by dropping the Qualifying final on each occasion, and being on the receiving end of beltings in 2016 (Sydney) & '17 (Tigers & Crows).
It'll be no revelation to me if this team falls off a cliff next year whatsoever; Dangerfield, Hawkins and Duncan are all still around their peak but I'd be surprised if any improved next year. Selwood and Ablett are every chance of dropping off in output. The rest of the list is competitive, but not finals material and certainly not flag material.
I agree with you that we need to bolster the list significantly, and the 'bottom 12' (!) sounds about right - hopefully if we try to replenish the list Wells and co. remember to select blokes who can kick the football, because I have concerns over the footskills of every one of Parfitt, Fogarty, Kelly and Menegola.