List Mgmt. Most annoying drafting/trading decisions by your club

[Anja_Nees]

Drafting Andrejs Everitt at 11 before Jack Riewoldt at 13 is a bit of a what if. Our best chance in those prelim years was 09, Riewoldt had his breakout in 2010. Might not have made a difference but I thought we were only a key forward away in 2009. Unfortunately when we got Hall in 2010 a few players had fell off.

The Callan Ward situation was a bit of a bundle by the club too. Fortunately we were able to get Macrae with the compensation pick so it didn’t end up hurting us.

Could have had Frawley as an alternative too. The thing is it isn’t even like Everitt was even rated by anyone else.

Every bit as bad was letting Podsiadly kick bags in the VFL for our affiliate year after year while we drafted or traded for Michael West, Andrew Macdougall and Tom Davidson at a time we were crying for a quality key forward. Might have been the difference in the ‘09 prelim.

Allen Jakovich with a top ten pick in the draft (ffs) hurts too. He played one awful year and then we played back to back prelims the next two years. What we could have done with that pick...

 

[Anja_Nees]

For Carlton there are a few but one had a clear domino effect:

In 2009 the decision to overlook local Carlton supporter and defender Daniel Talia for Kane Lucas (who Brett Ratten was an advocate for).

This forced us to overcompensate a year later in 2010 and load up on key defenders Matthew Watson (18) and Patrick McCarthy (36).

Matthew Watson (18) particularly stings as Jack Darling interviewed very well with us and it really came down to a flip of the coin between the pair ... however the defence was deemed a priority.

If that’s true it’s a killer. AA KPF and KPD or a pair of spuds.

 

[Moist Biscuit]

Jack Darling would of cost us a flag

Would have been a better second option than Zac Clarke.

 

[Moist Biscuit]

Imagine if we listened to Mark Harvey and drafted Bastinac over Fyfe.....

 

[Snarls Barkley]

Could have had Frawley as an alternative too. The thing is it isn’t even like Everitt was even rated by anyone else.

Every bit as bad was letting Podsiadly kick bags in the VFL for our affiliate year after year while we drafted or traded for Michael West, Andrew Macdougall and Tom Davidson at a time we were crying for a quality key forward. Might have been the difference in the ‘09 prelim.

Allen Jakovich with a top ten pick in the draft (ffs) hurts too. He played one awful year and then we played back to back prelims the next two years. What we could have done with that pick...

Yep definitely should’ve put Podsiadly in. Seems crazy now, that we’d see a guy dominate our reserves in a position of weakness and not draft him. What could’ve been.

 

[Scotland]

Still, it's hard to go past the decision to overlook Simon Black in 1997. WC took Rowan Jones at #28, allowing Brisbane to take Black at #31. And it's not like Black was an unknown bolter. He'd been AA at U18 level before his draft. What were they thinking?

I swear I remember hearing back in the day that our recruiters had concerns over Black's pace and/or disposal which led them to picking Jones.

Part of me hopes I made that up, but another part hopes it is 100% true. I still remember RoJo as the guy who tried to kick us out of the 2006 GF by missing from 15m in the prelim with a minute or two to go.

 

[Sweet Jesus]

I swear I remember hearing back in the day that our recruiters had concerns over Black's pace and/or disposal which led them to picking Jones.

Part of me hopes I made that up, but another part hopes it is 100% true. I still remember RoJo as the guy who tried to kick us out of the 2006 GF by missing from 15m in the prelim with a minute or two to go.

Yeah we came very close to losing that.

 

[Grockadoc]

Everyone knows the history of Richmond's drafting.

But:

2009: Griffiths at 19 over Fyfe who went the next pick who was a Tiger fanatic.

2012: Was disappointed we took Vlastuin over Grundy as we were desperate for a ruckman. I rate Vlastuin and feel he is severely underrated, but still, imagining Grundy in our side with Cotchin and Dusty...

2013: Ben Lennon at 12. Patrick Cripps at 13.


2014: Corey Ellis at 12 over Jake Lever at 14. We already had a number of skinny flankers and needed depth down back. Lever was someone a lot of Tigers wanted as a partner to Rance as at the time Grimes was having a lot of hammy issues.

 

[Rustin Cohle]

Collingwood drafting Nathan Freeman at pick 10 in the 2013 draft.

Who was taken at pick 11? Dom Sheed.

 

[Scotland]

Collingwood drafting Nathan Freeman at pick 10 in the 2013 draft.

Who was taken at pick 11? Dom Sheed.

I reckon there was a verbal agreement not to take Sheed given we exchanged picks in trade week.

 

[Bradkli]

Hard to choose which was the worst from the below....

2005-

Xavier Ellis pick 3...pendles went pick 5..couldn’t care less how Ellis played in 2008 gf. He was a seriously average player.

Beau Dowler pick 6- wouldn’t be too many worse top 6 picks ever other than Mitch thorp who we took the year after

2006-

Mitch Thorp pick 6- Joel Selwood went pick 7. Sickening.

Fast forward to 2016, the season we decided bringing in Vickery would be a good move and he would be our saviour...we decided to accept pick 23 from Freo for Bradley Hill

Surely it can’t get any worse....we then decided to trade pick 10 and two second round picks for a player that was coming off a horrific knee injury..but I guess because “we have the best medicos and fitness staff in the league” and “he will be our next captain” it was worth it...

 

[markm106]

Giants apparently had Toumpas lined up for top 3. Melbourne had Wines in their sights apparently. Giants passed over Toumpas and we took him. We have plenty of inside mids but still I’d have rather we gone Wines. Imagine we went Macrae!

 

[MisterMarcus]

That period between Ablett Snr declining and Cam Mooney establishing himself, when we seemed to trade for every broken-down injury-prone key forward in the league.

Jason Mooney, Brett Spinks, Mitchell White, I think there was a ruckman we tried to mould into a KPF in there as well....

Only Kent Kingsley was remotely any good for us during that time.

 

[pluggeranddoc]

Barrot for Stewart
Paid more for Lovett than what we got for Ball
Presuming we can fix crocks that better resourced clubshaven't been able to.(Freeman/Hannebery)
Giving Steven away for a 3rd rounder and paying part of his future campaignerract!
Paying as much (in picks) for Hill as you would for a Fyfe or Cripps!
Geez I hope we don't top that lot!!

 

[Damon_3388]

Yeah to get nothing for a guy who went on to be 3-time AA is malpratice.

Betts' time at Adelaide has caused a lot of revisionist history to be written. He looked like he was on the downward trend when he left Carlton, and the contract that Adelaide gave him seemed ridiculous (reportedly $2M over 4 years) for what they were likely to get out of a declining 27-year-old small forward.

Full credit to Betts for turning it around and having the best years of his career at the Crows, but it wasn't like he was given away by the Blues in startling form. He'd won zero AA selections before coming to Adelaide, and 2013 (his final year at Carlton) was one of the worst of his career (18 games, 11.67 disposals, and 1.50 goals per game, which are lower numbers than his "terrible" "he's finished" 2018-2019 seasons).

 

[Damon_3388]

That period between Ablett Snr declining and Cam Mooney establishing himself, when we seemed to trade for every broken-down injury-prone key forward in the league.

Jason Mooney, Brett Spinks, Mitchell White, I think there was a ruckman we tried to mould into a KPF in there as well....

Only Kent Kingsley was remotely any good for us during that time.

Was shocked to read up and learn that Kingsley was essentially a 110-mark, 50-goal a year key forward for 4 years straight (2002-2005, 85 games, 439 marks, 195 goals). I seemed to remember Kingsley as a continuation of that mediocre Derek Hall, Jason Mooney and Spinks lineage, who were like the 25-35 goal "just wait until next year, he'll be even better!" 1-2 year wonders, but he was clearly a lot better and more productive (probably had a bit better team around him at that stage than those other guys too).

 

[MisterMarcus]

Was shocked to read up and learn that Kingsley was essentially a 110-mark, 50-goal a year key forward for 4 years straight (2002-2005, 85 games, 439 marks, 195 goals). I seemed to remember Kingsley as a continuation of that mediocre Derek Hall, Jason Mooney and Spinks lineage, who were like the 25-35 goal "just wait until next year, he'll be even better!" 1-2 year wonders, but he was clearly a lot better and more productive (probably had a bit better team around him at that stage than those other guys too).

Kingsley was under-rated and copped a lot of unfair flak imho.

In an era where we were starved of KPFs, he basically was our sole tall target up forward. At 193cm, he'd probably have been best suited as a 'third tall' type, but he was forced to play a role that wasn't ideal just through sheer lack of alternatives. And he still notched up 40-50 goal seasons.

He was perhaps a little inconsistent, and was in that awkward era where 100-goal-a-season forwards still existed but where becoming rare. So 50 goals a year was probably still seen by some as 'not good enough' for a KPF when you still had blokes like Lloyd and Gehrig getting close to the century.

 

[north_lad]

All of them

 

[Scotland]

Betts' time at Adelaide has caused a lot of revisionist history to be written. He looked like he was on the downward trend when he left Carlton, and the contract that Adelaide gave him seemed ridiculous (reportedly $2M over 4 years) for what they were likely to get out of a declining 27-year-old small forward.

Full credit to Betts for turning it around and having the best years of his career at the Crows, but it wasn't like he was given away by the Blues in startling form. He'd won zero AA selections before coming to Adelaide, and 2013 (his final year at Carlton) was one of the worst of his career (18 games, 11.67 disposals, and 1.50 goals per game, which are lower numbers than his "terrible" "he's finished" 2018-2019 seasons).

Betts kicked 50, 48 and 27 goals in his last 3 seasons at Carlton. In his last season he missed 6 games but came back and kicked goals in their two finals.

If Betts was going to be judged on one down year in 2013 then effecitvely swapping him for Dale Thomas (for reportedly $700k a season) needs to be judged to the same standard. Thomas was great in 2010/11 when Collingwood were flying, OK in 2012 and then injured in 2013. He and Betts are only a year apart in age so it's not like Carlton were trading in Betts for an up and comer.

Betts' first year (2014) at the Crows was exactly what he produced in 2011/12 at the Blues. He was AA 2015-17 and benefited from playing in a decent side for once. Has declined since but is also almost 34 and everyone at Adelaide except Brodie Smith and Daniel Talia are worse than they were in 2017.

Adelaide won getting Betts for $500k a year, Collingwood won getting pick 11 for Thomas (traded to us, we picked Sheed at 11 they got Scharenberg at 6) and Carlton were left carrying the can.

 

[Prince Imperial]

Going back a bit
- Jordan McMahon in the 2000 draft @ #10, could have gone for Burgoyne or D Kerr instead

McMahon was later traded to Richmond for pick 19 and we selected Ward. When Ward went to GWS we got pick 6 as compo and used it on Macrae. 20 years later, we are laughing big time with a premiership (in which Macrae played a crucial role) to show for it!

 

[Turboman1994]

Jayden Pitt over Jack Darling probably cost us a flag.

I still don't get how he slid so far. Was about as blue chip as a prospect as you could get proven at WAFL league level good size ect. Shouldn't of been available at pick 20 let alone 26

 

[PhatBoy]

That period between Ablett Snr declining and Cam Mooney establishing himself, when we seemed to trade for every broken-down injury-prone key forward in the league.

Jason Mooney, Brett Spinks, Mitchell White, I think there was a ruckman we tried to mould into a KPF in there as well....

Only Kent Kingsley was remotely any good for us during that time.

always felt - and created a thread to this effect I think once - that Kingsley was very unlucky In that he was only 27 when we got rid of him, and even at his normal output he was averaging over 2 goals a game for us so given how our midfield clicked in 07 the year he left, he could have actually had a productive year as a premiership forward

 

[no. 4]

Can pretty much put almost all of Carlton's drafting between 1995 and 2013 into this discussion. Pick 1s aside (even those have debates ie Gibbs/Selwood and Kreuzer/Cotchin), as a Carlton supporter I look at the pain of almost 20 years of poor drafting decisions.

 

[falcons2]

Going back to 05, Ellis at 3. Played a great 08 GF but his body let him down. Could have had Pendlebury at 5. Can't be too greedy. 4 flags since 05.
Hindsight says when we had Dowler and Thorp at 6 we didn't even really need draft picks. Not to say we didn't miss stars in those drafts later on.

 

[Holden Hillbilly]

I still don't get how he slid so far. Was about as blue chip as a prospect as you could get proven at WAFL league level good size ect. Shouldn't of been available at pick 20 let alone 26

I did see some comments when he was drafted that only his size got him marks and goals at under 18 level but he would be ordinary in the AFL. How wrong they were.