I touched on this in another thread, and the clear difference in philosophy is easy to see
demonfan9 you are correct - we did froth (with good reason)
Watts, Scully, Trengove, Tapscott, Blease was / is mouth watering
These guys will still all develop into top line talent IMO
Then there was Gysberts, Cook etc. who were all a little bit of "what the?" selections, along probably with Strauss as well
Later picks netted us blokes like Fitzy - again, long term prospect
The issue with these guys is they were all (mostly) long term propspects
The majority of them needed MULTIPLE preseasons before they'd ever have a chance of dominating
We drafted too many "3 years / 5 years" time players
What Neeld is drafting is ready made players
Let's look at his record thus far:
Clark - say no more
Sellar - was exceptionally servicable
Tynan / Taggert - both ready made, just hit with injury
Magner - was great for a mature rookie in his 1st season - ready to go day 1
Couch - not a great impact but ready made
Williams - man mountain - ready made
Sheahan - project(ish) player who was a ROOKIE PICK - exactly where project players should be taken (not with Pick 12 in ND)
This draft - Viney (ready made), Hogan (ready made), likely Ollie Wines (ready made), Dom Barry - should play games next year
I'd prefer to take a bloke like Daniel Rich who will give you 5 bloody good years before Lucas Cook's even pulled on a jumper, if you know what I mean