I agree, but in December of 2020 when the draft was held, you had Larkey and an injured Comben on the list, and you weren't to know that you'd have Pick 1 in the mid season draft, nor did you know who would be there at that pick when you took Phillips at 3. So your original point of "we have 4 talls on the list NOW" is pretty much redundant to the discussion about who you took in 2020.
Not saying it's wrong, or that he won't be any good, but North had two talls staring them in the face, and they went for a small no one had seen play for 12 months.
Rightly or wrongly, there's a lot of pressure on Phillips, because North took him before the two WA talls.
DGB has shown absolutely nothing to say they were wrong in that assessment and McDonald was considered a flight risk and demoted in the order accordingly.
The North recruiters absolutely loved Thilthorpe.
DGB and McDonald, not so much.
There’s plenty of ITK posts from the middle of that year regarding Thilthorpe and North.