Brasher
Premium Platinum
We’ve had some interesting list decision choices and when you add them together it’s damming reading:
Henderson - delisted, lose him for nothing, Mackay preferred
Recruitment of Hampton and Menzel
Thommo- retained for additional year, wasted
Lyons- pushed out, receive pick in the 40s
Gibbs- wouldn’t do the deal and then we did for the cost we called irresponsible the year before
Long term deals to older players - Betts, Jenkins, Tex, Sloane, Lynch, Gibbs
Otten- retained for year too long
Passing and going short on the list- missed out on players
Now I’m not saying I got all these right at the time, but that’s not the point. We have highly paid experts to make the right call.
But collectively that’s an ordinary effort
It's worse if you take a little poetic license on why the moves were made and how we then went about things:
Henderson: Let go because (and this board has plenty of commentary on it) for being a bit of a squib. Replaced in side with Atkins who would win the Brownlow for Squibs if such an award existed. Unlike Atkins, Henderson had suffered a few head knocks to justify being gun shy.
Hampton and Menzel: Contenders for the Richard Tambling "Local Underachieving Product Come Home" Award. Argument that a change of scenery on more familiar grounds would spark careers. Not sure the club actually did anything special to address the underachievement other than bringing them to Adelaide.
Thommo: His last year was 2017, doubtful his list spot cost anyone a game...may have gone a year earlier under necessity had we had the Tippet-Gate draft sanctions on our list.
Lyons: Never understood the move or the lack of love (or GC's for that matter). Accused of being too slow and a one way runner, exactly what we replaced him with in the current midfield set up.
Gibbs: Romance got in the way of innovative and hard decision making. With the 5 high draft picks lost with Tippet-Gate club could not afford to give away further 1st rounders on any mature player unless they were going to be a candidate for the Norm Smith Medal.
Otten: See Thommo.