Scape Goat Sack Cox

[legend166]

Thanks mate that puts into perspective for me now and what I thought it’s horrendous recruitment but we made 3 grand finals in that time .

We made the 22 & 24 finals off of the drafting and recruiting we did from 2013->2019. Heeney, Mills, Blakey, Amartey, Florent, Hayward, Melican, Papley, McInerney, McCartin, Rowbottom were all critical members to one or both of those sides.

Considering the 2019-2024 class seems to be Warner, Gulden, then a gaping chasm, it's hard to see us making grand finals in a couple of years. We've blown this window and I don't think we're getting another one any time soon.

 

[Wheresbuddy]

Sure but there's multiple aspects to list management. There's the scouting/drafting side and then the player retention/list building side (how much do I pay this player, who do I focus on keeping as opposed to letting go, etc).

You take Aliir Aliir with a pick in the 40s, you've hit a home run with the scouting & drafting piece of the equation. Just because we then screwed up the retention/list building aspect doesn't negate that it was a great pick.

I see where you're coming from.

My view comes from seeing the pick as one part of a list management process and in that front, i think we have done quite poorly.

We had 2 shots at securing a generational ruck (Nank and Cameron) and fluffed it by backing a guy held together by sticky tape. Plus he wasn't even really that good a player in an all round sense. So eventually we let go of Aliir to get picks for Hickey!

We let go of Hewett, who we only viewed as a tagger and felt was going to be surpassed by a younger Rowbottom when hindsight shows is now a bona fide inside clearance mid.

Dawson was most probably a lost cause but I do wonder if we had identified his potential as a mid with leadership qualities whether he would've stayed? He had certainly racked up huge numbers in the neafl as an on baller.

 

[Nuggetz]

Have we really been down an assistant coach? tbh millsy has been more of an assistant coach than a player the last few years..

 

[Kiama Chris]

After this post I'm not even going to think about it before April unless he says or does at least two incredibly dumb things.
So far he said we would be aggressive in trade and draft and to my eyes he/they have done a decent job with the ammo that we had. Improved both our attacking and defensive (probably) stocks and midfield depth. Only the one gun but that was all we could afford. The rest look definite possibles. Overall list balance looks better.
Ignoring delistings, the 3 player losses have not weakened us overall IMO.
We brought in external expertise to help get a few (potentially) key guys healthy and improve the knowledge base in the club.
We have brought in additional coaching experience and expertise (my gut is still out on Goodwin) so that should help.
Be interested to know how much of all this is Cox and how much Cameron or team effort.