List Mgmt. Graeme Wrights Recruiting (Analysing HFC recruiting from 2011-present)

Davo-27

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this article inspired me to look into our recruiting in recent years and what better time to recap than the period where Graeme Wright took over as head of recruiting and at some point list manager, now we all praise GW for his trading ability which he is generally good at willing to trade away more to guarantee the player we want, we also have been appreciative of his late draft pick ups of recent times including Sicily and Lewis, but also have been disappointed with other draft decisions as well, so here is our trading, drafting, recruiting of cat b's and drafting of rookies and upgrading rookies, basically most things to do with our list in general.

it all started back in 2011

Trades In
: Gunston, Boumann Trades Out: Sierakowski, Renouf, Lisle
Draft: Pick 33 B.Hill, Pick 38 J.Kelly, Pick 53 A.Woodward
promoted rookie - L.Breust
Rookie Draft: Pick 16 B.McCauley, Pick 34 A.Frank, Pick 52 A.Boseley, Pick 69 A. Pattinson

not a bad start, trading for Gunston a young medium forw who became a champion during the premiership years for us, also picking up B.Hill who had a good few years and 3 premierships before leaving to Fremantle and the upgrading of Breust another champion forward for us, i would say this was a good year for GW and his team overall.

2012

Trades In:
Lake, Simpkin, Spangher, Anderson Trades Out: Gilham
Draft: Pick 28 T.O'Brien, Pick 66 K.Brand, Pick 70 redrafted M.Osborne
Rookie Draft: Pick 15 J.Ceglar, Pick 28 C.Kilkenny

here we have Lake being overweight at the Bulldogs and finally we get a chance at getting our man we have been trying for ages to trade for and boy did he deliver once we traded him in, we also got really lucky with Ceglar being such a good 2nd ruck for us over the years, the rest were part players and some misses, another good year overall in the scheme of things

2013

Trades In:
McEvoy Trades Out: Savage
Draft: Pick 24 B.Hartung, Pick 38 D.Garlett, Pick 56 J.Sicily
promoted rookie - J.Ceglar, W.Langford
Rookie Draft: Pick 17 D.Willsmore, Pick 33 D.Wanganeen, Pick 48 Z.Webster, Pick 57 B.Ross (Cat B - K.Heatherley + S.Tatupu)

St Kilda gifted us McEvoy, cheers saints, we'll take a quality ruck from you guys, cost us a decent prospect in Savage, but 100% worth, would do again, the draft was nearly a waste until Sicily got picked up, Ceglar getting promoted onto the list.

2014

Trades In:
O'Rourke, (Frawley FA) Trades Out: Hallahan, Cheney, Lowden
Draft: Pick 31 D.Howe, Pick 49 T.Miles, Pick 50 M.Pittonet
promoted rookie - D.Willsmore, Z.Webster
Rookie Draft: Pick 18 J.Hardisty, Pick 36 J.Miller-Lewis, Pick 53 L.Langford, Pick 65 S.Grimley

other than Frawley as a FA, what a disaster of a year, again nothing in the draft or rookie draft

2015

Trades In:
J.Fitzpatrick Trades Out: Suckling, Anderson
Draft: Pick 19 R.Burton, Pick 22 K.Lovell, Pick 44 B.Hardwick
promoted rookie - K.Heatherley
Rookie Draft: Pick 18 L.Surman, Pick 36 K.Stewart, Pick 52 redrafted A.Woodward, (Cat B - C.Glass)

bad trades, but saved with 2 good youngsters in the draft, if not for Hardwick this would be another mess of a trade/draft period

2016

Trades In:
T.Mitchell, JOM, Vickey FA, Henderson DFA Trades Out: B.Hill, S.Mitchell, J.Lewis
Draft: Pick 74 H.Morrison, Pick 77 M.Lewis
promoted rookie - K.Stewart
Rookie Draft: Pick 14 O.Hanrahan, Pick 31 redrafted J.Fitzpatrick, Pick 46 J.Cousins (Cat B - C.Nash)

this was the big transition year, where a bunch of our leaders got to the end of their careers and we needed to replace them, we got lucky with Tom Mitchell, Henderson and Lewis, we paid a price for JOM and he'll be a decent investment i hope, we traded out of the draft to fill needs.

2017

Trades In:
J.Impey Trades Out: L.Hodge
Draft: Pick 45 J.Worpel, Pick 67 D.Moore, Pick 71 J.Ross
Rookie Draft: Pick 7 H.Jones, Pick 23 D.Mirra, Pick 34 redraftd D.Willsmore (Cat B - C.Jiath)

i think this is one of the better all round performances from our recruiting department, trade in Impey, pick up a champion in mid-draft and a couple of other exciting prospects.

2018

Trades In:
Wingard, Scrimshaw, Scully, Minchington DFA Trades Out: Duryea
Draft: Pick 52 J.Koschitzke, Pick 63 M.Walker
promoted rookie - C.Glass, J.Cousins, D.Mirra
Rookie Draft: Pick 14 D.Greaves, Pick 30 W.Golds, Pick 43 T.Mohr, Pick 49 redrafted W.Langford (contract reasons)

this was a very exciting draft and we decided to go after Wingard instead which might work out in our favour as he is a champion, but missing out on the top end talent of this draft is unfortunate imo, Scrimshaw i was worried about after the O'Rourke situation burned us, but he looks a good player and both Kosi and Walker look likely to play AFL sooner than later.


Like i have said previously, i think GW is a good negotiator when trading, not that he gets the best price or deal, but that he gets the trades done and finalised, i think our clubs drafting could be a lot better, we have done well late a few times with some serious talent, but i would like more consistency at the draft and more rookies stepping up, it seems the vast majority of promoted rookies go nowhere which is a concern because staff see them more often and would have a better read on their talent, meaning these mistakes are from staff and recruiters because of the lack of talent coming in from the rookie draft in recent years.

our top 35 picks in this period is B.Hill@33, T.O'Brien@28, B.Hartung@24, D.Howe@31, R.Burton@19, K.Lovell@22, B.Hill and R.Burton are the only good players out of 6 high picks, thats a concern, then theres the D.Garlett mistake @38 and J.Kelly@38 also in the top 40, im hoping our recruiters do a better job at this draft with our early picks...
 
Last edited:
Jun 28, 2013
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this article inspired me to look into our recruiting in recent years and what better time to recap than the period where Graeme Wright took over as head of recruiting and at some point list manager, now we all praise GW for his trading ability which he is generally good at willing to trade away more to guarantee the player we want, we also have been appreciative of his late draft pick ups of recent times including Sicily and Lewis, but also have been disappointed with other draft decisions as well, so here is our trading, drafting, recruiting of cat b's and drafting of rookies and upgrading rookies, basically most things to do with our list in general.

it all started back in 2011

Trades In
: Gunston, Boumann Trades Out: Sierakowski, Renouf, Lisle
Draft: Pick 33 B.Hill, Pick 38 J.Kelly, Pick 53 A.Woodward
promoted rookie - L.Breust
Rookie Draft: Pick 16 B.McCauley, Pick 34 A.Frank, Pick 52 A.Boseley, Pick 69 A. Pattinson

not a bad start, trading for Gunston a young medium forw who became a champion during the premiership years for us, also picking up B.Hill who had a good few years and 3 premierships before leaving to Fremantle and the upgrading of Breust another champion forward for us, i would say this was a good year for GW and his team overall.

2012

Trades In:
Lake, Simpkin, Spangher, Anderson Trades Out: Gilham
Draft: Pick 28 T.O'Brien, Pick 66 K.Brand, Pick 70 redrafted M.Osborne
Rookie Draft: Pick 15 J.Ceglar, Pick 28 C.Kilkenny

here we have Lake being overweight at the Bulldogs and finally we get a chance at getting our man we have been trying for ages to trade for and boy did he deliver once we traded him in, we also got really lucky with Ceglar being such a good 2nd ruck for us over the years, the rest were part players and some misses, another good year overall in the scheme of things

2013

Trades In:
McEvoy Trades Out: Savage
Draft: Pick 24 B.Hartung, Pick 38 D.Garlett, Pick 56 J.Sicily
promoted rookie - J.Ceglar, W.Langford
Rookie Draft: Pick 17 D.Willsmore, Pick 33 D.Wanganeen, Pick 48 Z.Webster, Pick 57 B.Ross (Cat B - K.Heatherley + S.Tatupu)

St Kilda gifted us McEvoy, cheers saints, we'll take a quality ruck from you guys, cost us a decent prospect in Savage, but 100% worth, would do again, the draft was nearly a waste until Sicily got picked up, Ceglar getting promoted onto the list.

2014

Trades In:
O'Rourke, (Frawley FA) Trades Out: Hallahan, Cheney, Lowden
Draft: Pick 31 D.Howe, Pick 49 T.Miles, Pick 50 M.Pittonet
promoted rookie - D.Willsmore, Z.Webster
Rookie Draft: Pick 18 J.Hardisty, Pick 36 J.Miller-Lewis, Pick 53 L.Langford, Pick 65 S.Grimley

other than Frawley as a FA, what a disaster of a year, again nothing in the draft or rookie draft

2015

Trades In:
J.Fitzpatrick Trades Out: Suckling, Anderson
Draft: Pick 19 R.Burton, Pick 22 K.Lovell, Pick 44 B.Hardwick
promoted rookie - K.Heatherley
Rookie Draft: Pick 18 L.Surman, Pick 36 K.Stewart, Pick 52 redrafted A.Woodward, (Cat B - C.Glass)

bad trades, but saved with 2 good youngsters in the draft, if not for Hardwick this would be another mess of a trade/draft period

2016

Trades In:
T.Mitchell, JOM, Vickey FA, Henderson DFA Trades Out: B.Hill, S.Mitchell, J.Lewis
Draft: Pick 74 H.Morrison, Pick 77 M.Lewis
promoted rookie - K.Stewart
Rookie Draft: Pick 14 O.Hanrahan, Pick 31 redrafted J.Fitzpatrick, Pick 46 J.Cousins (Cat B - C.Nash)

this was the big transition year, where a bunch of our leaders got to the end of their careers and we needed to replace them, we got lucky with Tom Mitchell, Henderson and Lewis, we paid a price for JOM and he'll be a decent investment i hope, we traded out of the draft to fill needs.

2017

Trades In:
J.Impey Trades Out: L.Hodge
Draft: Pick 45 J.Worpel, Pick 67 D.Moore, Pick 71 J.Ross
Rookie Draft: Pick 7 H.Jones, Pick 23 D.Mirra, Pick 34 redraftd D.Willsmore (Cat B - C.Jiath)

i think this is one of the better all round performances from our recruiting department, trade in Impey, pick up a champion in mid-draft and a couple of other exciting prospects.

2018

Trades In:
Wingard, Scrimshaw, Scully, Minchington DFA Trades Out: Duryea
Draft: Pick 52 J.Koschitzke, Pick 63 M.Walker
promoted rookie - C.Glass, J.Cousins, D.Mirra
Rookie Draft: Pick 14 D.Greaves, Pick 30 W.Golds, Pick 43 T.Mohr, Pick 49 redrafted W.Langford (contract reasons)

this was a very exciting draft and we decided to go after Wingard instead which might work out in our favour as he is a champion, but missing out on the top end talent of this draft is unfortunate imo, Scrimshaw i was worried about after the O'Rourke situation burned us, but he looks a good player and both Kosi and Walker look likely to play AFL sooner than later.


Like i have said previously, i think GW is a good negotiator when trading, not that he gets the best price or deal, but that he gets the trades done and finalised, i think our clubs drafting could be a lot better, we have done well late a few times with some serious talent, but i would like more consistency at the draft and more rookies stepping up, it seems the vast majority of promoted rookies go nowhere which is a concern because staff see them more often and would have a better read on their talent, meaning these mistakes are from staff and recruiters because of the lack of talent coming in from the rookie draft in recent years.

our top 35 picks in this period is B.Hill@33, T.O'Brien@28, B.Hartung@24, D.Howe@31, R.Burton@19, K.Lovell@22, B.Hill and R.Burton are the only good players out of 6 high picks, thats a concern, then theres the D.Garlett mistake @38 and J.Kelly@38 also in the top 40, im hoping our recruiters do a better job at this draft with our early picks...
Didn’t have a dearth of picks and traded many out to get a new core. Worps, Sicily, Lewis and Hardwick makes you feel a whole lot happier about early misses
 

CHUBBSS

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If you were using our drafts investments as a business model you would be trading out early round picks up till pick 30 every single year on the above. We haven't had great form on the early picks.

Our late picks have been ridiculous though and our trading form is one of the best. This is the first year where it feels like draft picks are valued highly as it's a bit of a super draft, so really need to capitalise this year otherwise would be a huge bust
 
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Great thread this, also puts to bed the talk of GW trading for Shaun Burgoyne which people often mistaken. Agreed his great at getting deals over the line, even if we have to overpay at times.

As you said only 2/6 hits from top 35 picks ( very limited amount) isn't great, he really needs this to be 4/8 from this years draft.
 

PT Bar None

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Shows just how much of a gamble drafting still is. So many intangibles. Don't reckon any club has an "elite" recruiter.


But can you imagine what it would be like to have a recruiter who without fail would pick the player that would go on to be the best of all players remaining after that pick? You'd never leave the top four!
 

But can you imagine what it would be like to have a recruiter who without fail would pick the player that would go on to be the best of all players remaining after that pick? You'd never leave the top four!
Perhaps not, but then they got done by 15 goals in Grand Final Day.
 

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this article inspired me to look into our recruiting in recent years and what better time to recap than the period where Graeme Wright took over as head of recruiting and at some point list manager, now we all praise GW for his trading ability which he is generally good at willing to trade away more to guarantee the player we want, we also have been appreciative of his late draft pick ups of recent times including Sicily and Lewis, but also have been disappointed with other draft decisions as well, so here is our trading, drafting, recruiting of cat b's and drafting of rookies and upgrading rookies, basically most things to do with our list in general.

it all started back in 2011

Trades In
: Gunston, Boumann Trades Out: Sierakowski, Renouf, Lisle
Draft: Pick 33 B.Hill, Pick 38 J.Kelly, Pick 53 A.Woodward
promoted rookie - L.Breust
Rookie Draft: Pick 16 B.McCauley, Pick 34 A.Frank, Pick 52 A.Boseley, Pick 69 A. Pattinson

not a bad start, trading for Gunston a young medium forw who became a champion during the premiership years for us, also picking up B.Hill who had a good few years and 3 premierships before leaving to Fremantle and the upgrading of Breust another champion forward for us, i would say this was a good year for GW and his team overall.

2012

Trades In:
Lake, Simpkin, Spangher, Anderson Trades Out: Gilham
Draft: Pick 28 T.O'Brien, Pick 66 K.Brand, Pick 70 redrafted M.Osborne
Rookie Draft: Pick 15 J.Ceglar, Pick 28 C.Kilkenny

here we have Lake being overweight at the Bulldogs and finally we get a chance at getting our man we have been trying for ages to trade for and boy did he deliver once we traded him in, we also got really lucky with Ceglar being such a good 2nd ruck for us over the years, the rest were part players and some misses, another good year overall in the scheme of things

2013

Trades In:
McEvoy Trades Out: Savage
Draft: Pick 24 B.Hartung, Pick 38 D.Garlett, Pick 56 J.Sicily
promoted rookie - J.Ceglar, W.Langford
Rookie Draft: Pick 17 D.Willsmore, Pick 33 D.Wanganeen, Pick 48 Z.Webster, Pick 57 B.Ross (Cat B - K.Heatherley + S.Tatupu)

St Kilda gifted us McEvoy, cheers saints, we'll take a quality ruck from you guys, cost us a decent prospect in Savage, but 100% worth, would do again, the draft was nearly a waste until Sicily got picked up, Ceglar getting promoted onto the list.

2014

Trades In:
O'Rourke, (Frawley FA) Trades Out: Hallahan, Cheney, Lowden
Draft: Pick 31 D.Howe, Pick 49 T.Miles, Pick 50 M.Pittonet
promoted rookie - D.Willsmore, Z.Webster
Rookie Draft: Pick 18 J.Hardisty, Pick 36 J.Miller-Lewis, Pick 53 L.Langford, Pick 65 S.Grimley

other than Frawley as a FA, what a disaster of a year, again nothing in the draft or rookie draft

2015

Trades In:
J.Fitzpatrick Trades Out: Suckling, Anderson
Draft: Pick 19 R.Burton, Pick 22 K.Lovell, Pick 44 B.Hardwick
promoted rookie - K.Heatherley
Rookie Draft: Pick 18 L.Surman, Pick 36 K.Stewart, Pick 52 redrafted A.Woodward, (Cat B - C.Glass)

bad trades, but saved with 2 good youngsters in the draft, if not for Hardwick this would be another mess of a trade/draft period

2016

Trades In:
T.Mitchell, JOM, Vickey FA, Henderson DFA Trades Out: B.Hill, S.Mitchell, J.Lewis
Draft: Pick 74 H.Morrison, Pick 77 M.Lewis
promoted rookie - K.Stewart
Rookie Draft: Pick 14 O.Hanrahan, Pick 31 redrafted J.Fitzpatrick, Pick 46 J.Cousins (Cat B - C.Nash)

this was the big transition year, where a bunch of our leaders got to the end of their careers and we needed to replace them, we got lucky with Tom Mitchell, Henderson and Lewis, we paid a price for JOM and he'll be a decent investment i hope, we traded out of the draft to fill needs.

2017

Trades In:
J.Impey Trades Out: L.Hodge
Draft: Pick 45 J.Worpel, Pick 67 D.Moore, Pick 71 J.Ross
Rookie Draft: Pick 7 H.Jones, Pick 23 D.Mirra, Pick 34 redraftd D.Willsmore (Cat B - C.Jiath)

i think this is one of the better all round performances from our recruiting department, trade in Impey, pick up a champion in mid-draft and a couple of other exciting prospects.

2018

Trades In:
Wingard, Scrimshaw, Scully, Minchington DFA Trades Out: Duryea
Draft: Pick 52 J.Koschitzke, Pick 63 M.Walker
promoted rookie - C.Glass, J.Cousins, D.Mirra
Rookie Draft: Pick 14 D.Greaves, Pick 30 W.Golds, Pick 43 T.Mohr, Pick 49 redrafted W.Langford (contract reasons)

this was a very exciting draft and we decided to go after Wingard instead which might work out in our favour as he is a champion, but missing out on the top end talent of this draft is unfortunate imo, Scrimshaw i was worried about after the O'Rourke situation burned us, but he looks a good player and both Kosi and Walker look likely to play AFL sooner than later.


Like i have said previously, i think GW is a good negotiator when trading, not that he gets the best price or deal, but that he gets the trades done and finalised, i think our clubs drafting could be a lot better, we have done well late a few times with some serious talent, but i would like more consistency at the draft and more rookies stepping up, it seems the vast majority of promoted rookies go nowhere which is a concern because staff see them more often and would have a better read on their talent, meaning these mistakes are from staff and recruiters because of the lack of talent coming in from the rookie draft in recent years.

our top 35 picks in this period is B.Hill@33, T.O'Brien@28, B.Hartung@24, D.Howe@31, R.Burton@19, K.Lovell@22, B.Hill and R.Burton are the only good players out of 6 high picks, thats a concern, then theres the D.Garlett mistake @38 and J.Kelly@38 also in the top 40, im hoping our recruiters do a better job at this draft with our early picks...

Selective. I make 45% success since 2005

More accurately, 23 successes from 53 in the draft and 8 from 50 in rookies. that includes 25 champion players

Wright has been at hawthorn since 2007, but became list manager in 2011

the current regime seems to have roots in 2009, since which half the entrants to best 24 have been 50:50 trades and draft

Naturally trade in shave a higher success rate in this respect 14 successes from 20 from 2009 to 2018
in the same time 12 successes from 27 (44%) I have not included Moore Ross Koschitzke Walker. they are still showing enough

Langford Ceglar Cousins Glass Nash Jones Juath notable rookies in that time

I have'nt rated any champions recruited in that time, McEvoy Mitchell the only ones still on our list

but 44% considering where our picks fall mainly is exceptional. I bet its close to the overall success rate from all clubs from all picks
 
Last edited:

Easy Slips Catch

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Thanks Davo!

Only a couple of picks stand out as being shockers.

Hartung and Garlett were just dumb and perhaps desperate picks. I still scratch my head on Lovell.

The rest aren't too bad. 2014 looks bad but we gave up pick 19 but it was slim pickings anyway.
 
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Thanks Davo!

Only a couple of picks stand out as being shockers.

Hartung and Garlett were just dumb and perhaps desperate picks. I still scratch my head on Lovell.

The rest aren't too bad. 2014 looks bad but we gave up pick 19 but it was slim pickings anyway.
I never understood Hartung at the time. He tested poor for agility. If you are that small you would want to be pretty agile. Turns out he could only run in straight lines and then get caught.

Garlett was a silly risk in hindsight.

However for every Lovell, Hartung, Garlett etc you get late masterstrokes like Sicily, Worpel, Hardwick & Lewis. We can't be too unhappy with that

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
 
Thanks Davo!

Only a couple of picks stand out as being shockers.

Hartung and Garlett were just dumb and perhaps desperate picks. I still scratch my head on Lovell.

The rest aren't too bad. 2014 looks bad but we gave up pick 19 but it was slim pickings anyway.
Sure, Garlett didn't work out at all, but I'm glad we took that risk - we were in a position whereby we could afford to splash a bit. It was the Hartung one before it that should've off-set the Garlett pick, but instead exacerbated it.
 

Furn2

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just shows what ive been saying.

Once your out of the top 15 or so its really a crapshoot and quite often youll miss in the 20s and 30s only to hit gold in the 40s,50s and 60s.
 
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Shows just how much of a gamble drafting still is. So many intangibles. Don't reckon any club has an "elite" recruiter.
If we didn't have GW, the one recruiter I'd love to have would be Wells. I reckon many of the blokes he has selected over the years would have done well in our system.
 
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I never understood Hartung at the time. He tested poor for agility. If you are that small you would want to be pretty agile. Turns out he could only run in straight lines and then get caught.

Garlett was a silly risk in hindsight.

However for every Lovell, Hartung, Garlett etc you get late masterstrokes like Sicily, Worpel, Hardwick & Lewis. We can't be too unhappy with that

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

We wanted speed with run and carry. Impey was our preferred target but Port took him earlier then expected so we took Hartung. To be fair to Hartung he looked extremely promising in his first year but when given more responsibility showed glaring weaknesses that he simply couldn't overcome.

I'm still sad over Garlett because Clarko obviously saw the potential and took a risk that backfired badly. We even had him room with Hodgey and he couldn't handle the regime and homesickness. I think our recruiting team has played it safer since then and we won't really see risks like Stack.
 
I don't think it's too soon to rate the Scully trade a win also. We got a best 22 for virtually nothing. May not reach the level of Wingard or Mitchell, but again, far more value than the team gave up for him, no?
 
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I don't think it's too soon to rate the Scully trade a win also. We got a best 22 for virtually nothing. May not reach the level of Wingard or Mitchell, but again, far more value than the team gave up for him, no?

For what we gave up in a trade yeah it's a win, for the salary he's paid then it's probably par or if anything Scully is on overs. But we have an abundance of salary cap room so that doesn't really concern me.

I don't mind the Garlett risk, yeah looks bad in hindsight but I can see what the club was trying to do, nab a top 10 talent on the cheap.
 

TylerDurden

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We wanted speed with run and carry. Impey was our preferred target but Port took him earlier then expected so we took Hartung. To be fair to Hartung he looked extremely promising in his first year but when given more responsibility showed glaring weaknesses that he simply couldn't overcome.

I'm still sad over Garlett because Clarko obviously saw the potential and took a risk that backfired badly. We even had him room with Hodgey and he couldn't handle the regime and homesickness. I think our recruiting team has played it safer since then and we won't really see risks like Stack.
Hartung hurts when you realise Z Merrett went the pick after. Swings and roundabouts.

Wright is also an elite trader and negotiator. We're very lucky to have him. Has knocked back massive offers to stay every year.
 

Lickmesocks

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this article inspired me to look into our recruiting in recent years and what better time to recap than the period where Graeme Wright took over as head of recruiting and at some point list manager, now we all praise GW for his trading ability which he is generally good at willing to trade away more to guarantee the player we want, we also have been appreciative of his late draft pick ups of recent times including Sicily and Lewis, but also have been disappointed with other draft decisions as well, so here is our trading, drafting, recruiting of cat b's and drafting of rookies and upgrading rookies, basically most things to do with our list in general.

it all started back in 2011

Trades In
: Gunston, Boumann Trades Out: Sierakowski, Renouf, Lisle
Draft: Pick 33 B.Hill, Pick 38 J.Kelly, Pick 53 A.Woodward
promoted rookie - L.Breust
Rookie Draft: Pick 16 B.McCauley, Pick 34 A.Frank, Pick 52 A.Boseley, Pick 69 A. Pattinson

not a bad start, trading for Gunston a young medium forw who became a champion during the premiership years for us, also picking up B.Hill who had a good few years and 3 premierships before leaving to Fremantle and the upgrading of Breust another champion forward for us, i would say this was a good year for GW and his team overall.

2012

Trades In:
Lake, Simpkin, Spangher, Anderson Trades Out: Gilham
Draft: Pick 28 T.O'Brien, Pick 66 K.Brand, Pick 70 redrafted M.Osborne
Rookie Draft: Pick 15 J.Ceglar, Pick 28 C.Kilkenny

here we have Lake being overweight at the Bulldogs and finally we get a chance at getting our man we have been trying for ages to trade for and boy did he deliver once we traded him in, we also got really lucky with Ceglar being such a good 2nd ruck for us over the years, the rest were part players and some misses, another good year overall in the scheme of things

2013

Trades In:
McEvoy Trades Out: Savage
Draft: Pick 24 B.Hartung, Pick 38 D.Garlett, Pick 56 J.Sicily
promoted rookie - J.Ceglar, W.Langford
Rookie Draft: Pick 17 D.Willsmore, Pick 33 D.Wanganeen, Pick 48 Z.Webster, Pick 57 B.Ross (Cat B - K.Heatherley + S.Tatupu)

St Kilda gifted us McEvoy, cheers saints, we'll take a quality ruck from you guys, cost us a decent prospect in Savage, but 100% worth, would do again, the draft was nearly a waste until Sicily got picked up, Ceglar getting promoted onto the list.

2014

Trades In:
O'Rourke, (Frawley FA) Trades Out: Hallahan, Cheney, Lowden
Draft: Pick 31 D.Howe, Pick 49 T.Miles, Pick 50 M.Pittonet
promoted rookie - D.Willsmore, Z.Webster
Rookie Draft: Pick 18 J.Hardisty, Pick 36 J.Miller-Lewis, Pick 53 L.Langford, Pick 65 S.Grimley

other than Frawley as a FA, what a disaster of a year, again nothing in the draft or rookie draft

2015

Trades In:
J.Fitzpatrick Trades Out: Suckling, Anderson
Draft: Pick 19 R.Burton, Pick 22 K.Lovell, Pick 44 B.Hardwick
promoted rookie - K.Heatherley
Rookie Draft: Pick 18 L.Surman, Pick 36 K.Stewart, Pick 52 redrafted A.Woodward, (Cat B - C.Glass)

bad trades, but saved with 2 good youngsters in the draft, if not for Hardwick this would be another mess of a trade/draft period

2016

Trades In:
T.Mitchell, JOM, Vickey FA, Henderson DFA Trades Out: B.Hill, S.Mitchell, J.Lewis
Draft: Pick 74 H.Morrison, Pick 77 M.Lewis
promoted rookie - K.Stewart
Rookie Draft: Pick 14 O.Hanrahan, Pick 31 redrafted J.Fitzpatrick, Pick 46 J.Cousins (Cat B - C.Nash)

this was the big transition year, where a bunch of our leaders got to the end of their careers and we needed to replace them, we got lucky with Tom Mitchell, Henderson and Lewis, we paid a price for JOM and he'll be a decent investment i hope, we traded out of the draft to fill needs.

2017

Trades In:
J.Impey Trades Out: L.Hodge
Draft: Pick 45 J.Worpel, Pick 67 D.Moore, Pick 71 J.Ross
Rookie Draft: Pick 7 H.Jones, Pick 23 D.Mirra, Pick 34 redraftd D.Willsmore (Cat B - C.Jiath)

i think this is one of the better all round performances from our recruiting department, trade in Impey, pick up a champion in mid-draft and a couple of other exciting prospects.

2018

Trades In:
Wingard, Scrimshaw, Scully, Minchington DFA Trades Out: Duryea
Draft: Pick 52 J.Koschitzke, Pick 63 M.Walker
promoted rookie - C.Glass, J.Cousins, D.Mirra
Rookie Draft: Pick 14 D.Greaves, Pick 30 W.Golds, Pick 43 T.Mohr, Pick 49 redrafted W.Langford (contract reasons)

this was a very exciting draft and we decided to go after Wingard instead which might work out in our favour as he is a champion, but missing out on the top end talent of this draft is unfortunate imo, Scrimshaw i was worried about after the O'Rourke situation burned us, but he looks a good player and both Kosi and Walker look likely to play AFL sooner than later.


Like i have said previously, i think GW is a good negotiator when trading, not that he gets the best price or deal, but that he gets the trades done and finalised, i think our clubs drafting could be a lot better, we have done well late a few times with some serious talent, but i would like more consistency at the draft and more rookies stepping up, it seems the vast majority of promoted rookies go nowhere which is a concern because staff see them more often and would have a better read on their talent, meaning these mistakes are from staff and recruiters because of the lack of talent coming in from the rookie draft in recent years.

our top 35 picks in this period is B.Hill@33, T.O'Brien@28, B.Hartung@24, D.Howe@31, R.Burton@19, K.Lovell@22, B.Hill and R.Burton are the only good players out of 6 high picks, thats a concern, then theres the D.Garlett mistake @38 and J.Kelly@38 also in the top 40, im hoping our recruiters do a better job at this draft with our early picks...

Lots of hits and lots of misses....

Drafting kids is tough work. You are essentially taking on a young kid who is not yet a man and giving them large sums of money and hoping like hell they will stay out of trouble and put there heads down and enjoy the AFL system.

Dowler Thorp and Ellis all top 6 picks remind me of that but at the same time Franklin Roughead and Lewis all top 7 picks help balance it all out.

I think over the years we have done fairly well. Worpel and Sicily are absolute steals and Garlett was a risk worth taking at the time when we were contending and had the leaders in place to deal with him.
 

Davo-27

Norm Smith Medallist
Sep 9, 2006
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Rough summary of 2014. Was a weak draft year and we could have done far worse than Daniel Howe at pick 31.

i was hoping prior to that draft that we would get Blakely, Neal-Bullen or Caleb Daniel, all of which were after pick 31, but i guess those players are no good... i remember a few on our board wanted Jack Lonie as well, Mitch McGovern, Bailey Dale, Oscar McDonald, Harris Andrews, Dan Butler, Jeremy Finlayson and Ed Langdon were also available.....i thought we reached for Daniel Howe that year, i rated him as a possible pick at 49/50 but anyways....
 
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