Say we didnt trade for Jake Carlisle. Who would we have taken?
Pick 5 became pick 6 after the Swans matched Demons bid on Callum Mills.... So that leaves Francis, Ah Chee, Milera, Gresham, etc
Pick 24 became pick 29 after all the early Academy bids were matched..... So that leaves Morgan, Redman, Hibberd, Sier, Clarke, Bonner, Balic, Mathieson, etc
Our 3rd round pick shifted down from around pick 44 to Pick 40 due to other clubs picks being lost though academy bids & we took Brandon White
Are any of those possible combinations actually better than Gresham, White & Carlisle?
In all honesty if we had those picks I would have chosen Aaron Francis, Mitch Hibberd and Mitch Brown at the time (and possibly picked up Ben Crocker later out of those left).
Given that Francis could play forward or back as a medium third tall certainly would have it's merits. Hibberd would give us a tall, skilful outside mid or winger who, like Francis, is an excellent kick, and we could certainly do with more of that.
We needed at least one tall who wasn't a rookie and Francis is only 190cms, but gaining two 190 cm players who could play midfield would have been a bonus as Hibberd is that size too.
Brown seems to have a way to go given his performances at Essendon so far, but he has talent. Still probably happier with Carlisle to this point though, even given everything that's transpired.
Would not have been able to fulfill Rice's wishes to come to us unless we borrowed from the future or had taken him at 40, which could have been paying overs. As it worked out, had we taken Rice at #40 and Michael Hartley or Jesse Glass-McCasker at our 4th pick it still could have paid dividends.
So would I have been any happier with that than getting Gresham, Carlisle, White and Rice ? Not sure, but hindsight is a wonderful thing, just not based in reality unfortunately.
Gresham and Rice were bargains and fulfilled needs. With Gresham at #18 we got someone who may equal whoever we would have picked at #6. Gresham is more pure mid than Francis or Hibberd. After Richmond bid on Rice at 49 we were able to afford him with the discount. Glad we didn't have to mortgage the future for him or miss him altogether.
Carlisle and White were worth their value, at least at the time. Just unfortunate that Carlisle couldn't immediately maintain his worth. White I'm very happy with at pick #40 as he could be that pacy winger we needed and he's not small.
Acknowledge we could do with another tallish mid but we seem to have options in this year's draft wherever we land.
Notably we managed to fulfill all our key needs (if you include Freeman), stayed loyal and kept our commitments,
AND never even tried to screw anyone over.
If the question is really "Could our recruiters have outdone themselves if the Carlisle news had broken in time for us to pull out?" - then maybe yes. Francis, Hibberd, Brown and Crocker would probably look mighty fine too ....
.... but we wouldn't have been able to savour Gresh "lovin' life", Whitey being "stoked", Bailey's family story and Jake's transformation. (Not to mention Nathan's bid for freedom.)