The one that hurts the most.

[Goldust]

It is indeed

... but LeCras went at 37, Gwilt at 63 and other than Eddie Betts in the PSD there's hardly any from outside the first round worth anything. (NB not include T Cloke as he was a F/S selection)

Other clubs had two and three picks before Le Cras went at 37 and all clubs had multiple picks before Gwilt went and ALL overlooked Betts.
It ain't exact science!!

 

[Wallaby]

There is nothing wrong with trading. It enables you to get exact pieces for your game plan.

What I find most interesting is the top 4 teams this year all have 1st rucks they traded for - Collingwood has Jolley, Carlton Warnock, Geelong Ottens, Hawthorn Hale (he is sharing with Bailey). If you look at the leading ruckmen for the season, at least half of them have changed clubs at some stage in their careers.

2 reasons for this.

First - there is only room for one or at most 2 good rucks at a club - so if a club flukes 3 or more (eg: carlton, melbourne in recent years), they have a valuable chip they can trade. The ruckman will also demand a trade

Second - If a club needs a ruckman, it takes 5-6 years to develop one, and you really dont know of he's any good until those years have passed - so why wait and grow your own when you can buy?

That's why we all said Vickery was a high-risk draft pick at 8. He's going to need a lot of investment time.

 

[TigerGlory]

With regards to 2004 we can at least take comfort in the fact that the draft as a whole was a bit of a dud draft. The top 4 aside and Jordan Lewis there arent alot of genuine players that have come out of the draft.

With hindsight, I think the absolute best we could have done with our picks would have been;

1 - Deledio
4 - Franklin
12 - Van Berlo
16 - Prismall
20 - LeCras

Those latter 3 were all taken after Pick 20 anyway.

 

[Wally Matera]

lmaoooo

(its a generational thing , most on here would not get that)

bwaahahahaha.... l must be getting old.

Ray Martin's love child...

 

[IDGAF]

bwaahahahaha.... l must be getting old.

Ray Martin's love child...

LMAOO

I thought he was Mike Willessee's Besty ?

 

[Catsace]

people tend to forget brent molony and pick 12 were originally offered to us.

Moloney was traded by Geelong to the Dees to get their pick 12 so we had the second 'first round' pick to make the trade for Ottens. Geelong lost a prelim in '04 and our actual pick was #16. From memory the Tigers wanted to top 10 selections for Ottens, but we had no meaningful way to obtain two picks we could never have.

FWIW in the 2004 draft, Geelong did snag an A.A CHB in Matty Egan with pick 59, who succumbed to a navicular fracture in Rd 22 2007 and was forced to retire. Shocking luck for him that. Thank goodness the genius Stephen Wells found Harry Taylor with pick 17 in 2008!

Knowing the strength of a draft though is probably something only 20-20 hindsight can genuinely see.