People questioning the calibre of the draftees at the time of being drafted must also look at the developmental process that they went through and not just think they came into being as the players they are now.
Not to toot my clubs horn, but lets take Lenny Hayes as an example, he came into a club that was fading into bottom 4 finishes, but still had players like Rob Harvey, Nathan Burke Andrew Thompson etc to learn from, Riewoldt had Stewie Loewe to learn from (kicks like him too sadly).
The point is that draft talent has to be shaped correctly and Carlton in the mid 2000's had nobody to teach the players about how to go about it at AFL level besides Kouta who was already shot by then and couldn't lead by example, who's to say if Carlton drafted Cotchin instead of Kruezer that Cotchin wouldn't be a soft plodder and Kruezer wouldn't be the new Polly Farmer. Who's to say that Gibbs wouldn't have become an elite midfielder with a booming kick at Geelong and Joel Selwood might have gone the way of Adam. It doesn't start and end on draft day.
Not to toot my clubs horn, but lets take Lenny Hayes as an example, he came into a club that was fading into bottom 4 finishes, but still had players like Rob Harvey, Nathan Burke Andrew Thompson etc to learn from, Riewoldt had Stewie Loewe to learn from (kicks like him too sadly).
The point is that draft talent has to be shaped correctly and Carlton in the mid 2000's had nobody to teach the players about how to go about it at AFL level besides Kouta who was already shot by then and couldn't lead by example, who's to say if Carlton drafted Cotchin instead of Kruezer that Cotchin wouldn't be a soft plodder and Kruezer wouldn't be the new Polly Farmer. Who's to say that Gibbs wouldn't have become an elite midfielder with a booming kick at Geelong and Joel Selwood might have gone the way of Adam. It doesn't start and end on draft day.










