bc stkilda's strength today was built when they bottomd out 7-8 years ago when they got reiwoldt/kosi/dal santo/goddard al within a few years of each other with early picks. Geelong never bottomed out like the saints, true, but they were blessed with some father son picks which were the equivolent of top 3picks in ablett/scarlett and hawkins. Not to mention these sides had much better development resources in place and have been able to build a side around these a-graders. Plus saints got some handy comp for players like everitt and Hall, so they may not have had top 5 picks a plenty but they had plenty of 1st and 2nd rounders
Who is to say that our strength for future years hasn't been established now with Deledio Cotchin Martin Riewoldt who were all picked up within a few years of each other.
I think its safe to say I have seen enough under the dimma regime that the development resurces have finally been put in place at richmond and regardless of PP's we will get better, but the PP's will give us that extra kick to start the climb that much quicker... Lids/Reiwoldt/Cotch & Martin will be A-graders, add 2-3 more potenial genuine A-graders this year and next and then you have 6-7 top shelf footballers you can build a club around.
Those other sides didn't recruit all their A graders with first round picks guys like Montagna, Fisher, Gilbert, Enright, Chapman, Ling & Johnson were all taken outside the first round while others like Kelly Hayes & Dal Santo were taken outside the top 10. They also built without the extra PP that many here seem to think will be the key to our success. IMO it comes down to recruiting and development and now that we're spending more money on these 2 areas its not as important to our future that we have to land a PP as it was in previous years.
As I've said all year if we end up with a PP come seasons end because we're truly not good enough to win games I'll wear it. However if, like we have shown, we're good enough to win games and deliberately go out and lose I can't accept that.
IMO you don't spend the whole season demanding that the players put their bodies on the line when it is their turn to go and then turn around, when you might lose pick 27 as a result of them doing just, and ask them/make moves that forces them to go away from that team rule. Once you do that it sends the wrong message to the group.
Geelong aided by a few FS's and drafted better than us. St Kilda obviously used their draft picks better while we have thrown a lot of ours away. It's only logical to suggest earlier draft pick = better chance to pick up a better players because you're getting a bigger pool of players to choose from. Up to the club to use it wisely. Also logical to suggest extra pick (P.P) another chance to pick up a player that can take us forward. For example last year a 2nd round pick netted Fyfe and Bastinac in a supposed "weak draft". They would be best 22 players right now for us with ease and they both look like they will good players. We have that chance this year and also had that chance in previous years.
So now that we're pouring more money into recruiting and development whats stopping us from also using our picks better. Having access to top end picks doesn't stop sides from making the wrong call. Hawthorn had a much better recruiting and development program than we did back in 2006, they picked Mitch Thorp at 6, who was delisted after playing 2 games in 3 years, the next pick was Selwood who has won 2 flags and we got Riewoldt at pick 13 that year after downgrading from pick 8. In 2005 the Hawks also had pick 6, their second top 10 pick that year and used it on Dowler who in 4.5 season has managed 16 games, next pick was Ryder who has played 85 and been a shining light for the Bombers over the last 18 months, picks 11-16 have also proved to be better players than Dowler. What does that say about your logic that having access to higher picks gives you a better chance of nabbing better players?
Also, your stat is a bit flawed. You can say we have a lot of our first-round picks on our list but that would also include rubbish we got from other clubs like Thomson, Hislop, McMahon and Polak that we should've never traded/picked up in the first place (mistakes made by previous regimes).
Actually its not flawed, the list I put up earlier just includes those we've drafted not guys like Thomson McMahon & Polak.
Our rebuild started last year.
Not if you read what Hardwick has to say on the subject, he believes the rebuild started back in 2004.