- Banned
- #2,101
History would suggest successful teams are built upon drafting a high quality foundation of youth over 4-5 years, before trading in established players to address the team's weaknesses.So tell me what's wrong with taking pick 7 to the draft? And taking future picks to the draft? I'm getting the gist we need more 'mature aged players' to fill an 'age gap', but if we take keep taking picks to the draft each year, then in a handful of years we'll have a fairly evenly distributed aged profile across the team or am I missing something? I understand we'll occasionally need to trade to rectify a specific position shortfall most likely in order to challenge for the Premiership when we understand our window to be open...but is our window actually open right now? Players on other teams can see that it isn't...
I don't want to be like Sydney or Geelong and be perennial runners-up...Couldn't care less if they made the finals each year. I'm content to be patient (and not melt) for our next challenge. And rather than going all out to bring in what appears to be a Stringer by a different name (basically what a PA mate said before he even picked up on the news we were interested), I'm happy to recruit our players at the draft and build something from nothing just like 2016.
We can't win every year. Such an attitude isn't defeatist, not when you're working towards a window and making sure you're building a list to match.
Hawthorn had one of the best blueprints. From 2001-2006, they pick up Hodge, Mitchell, Roughead, Franklin, Lewis & Birchall among others, then won a flag earlier than expected in 2008. At that point, they decided now was the right time to bring in hardened bodies, and over the next 3-5 years, brought in Burgoyne, Gibson, I.Smith(mature age draftee), Puopolo(mature age draftee), Lake, McEvoy and Frawley.
Looking at us, from 2012-2017, we've assembled Macrae, Hunter, Bontempelli, McLean, Dunkley, Cordy, Richards and Naughton among others. That's a high quality foundation of youth, but as we've seen this year, we have some big problems, particularly in the forward line. We've already shown in 2015-2016 this team is capable of playing amazing footy, so logic would suggest bringing in an established forward is a good idea, which is why we're getting Lloyd, and why we targeted Wingard. Now is the right time to target established quality.
With that said, it's looking increasingly likely we'll take pick 7 to the draft now that we're not getting Wingard. It looks like there won't be any high quality forwards available this trade window.
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