Topkent
Confirmed ITK Drafting King
Pretty much agree. The knock on Scott is that he hasn't built a flag list in 10 years as North's coach. He's drafted some young talent in the last couple of years whilst remaining competitive, but now the test is to integrate McKay/Durdin into a defence with two experienced KPDs that hold the side up. McKay and Durdin have waited three years without getting much of a chance and they need some senior footy. Bolton is taking the Dean Bailey approach, which might work given the amount of talent it's allowing them to get through the doors, but you'd hope the kids aren't starting their careers thinking it's fine to lose game after game. As we know, it's hard to lose that habit.
He's got great endurance and sticky hands though. All his best games at AFL level, particularly in the wet against us a few years ago, have been built around running all day and burning his man. He's probably more of a Tom Lynch from Adelaide, when Richardson wants him to be the other Tom Lynch.
Wow I cant believe its been 10 years, thats probably not good enough however I dont think its because hes a bad coach.
You could argue that his prelim sides maybe topped up too early and should have built though the draft longer but I think once you make the 8 its incumbent on any good coach to push for the flag. They clearly thought they had a chance but they were only a middling side in terms of talent yet he won cut throat finals both years.
Objectively both were very good coaching years.
I dont think he has had the assets other coaches have had. Goodwin has been able to develop 4 players taken before pick 5 in the draft, Scotts had 1.
I also think North Melbourne traditionally havent been able to attract any really high profile trades either so he hasnt had the luxury of adding Frawley/Burgoyne/Lake/Mitchell/Omeara etc or Danger/Henderson/Touhy/Dahlhaus etc up until this trade period.
I think Hall, Tyson and Polec were all brilliant deals for where they are in their development. Imagine Carltons midfield with those 3 players instead of just chucking more kids in you could guarantee they would help facilitate the development of Walsh and co with less pressure on their shoulder.
Dumont/Durdin/Wood/Turner/Mckay/Mcdonald/Ahern they have some reasonable young talent around. I think this list stands a better shot than the last one he took to the prelims.
They might not have the best of any group, but they dont have any real weaknesses either. Im mostly a fan of how Scott gets them to always play to win, if Goodwin turned out to flop I think we could do worse than giving Scott a go