When was the last time we recruited a DECENT reject? Who is to blame?

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Is Jarrad Waite the last decent reject we had from another team? Could be wrong but cant remember any others (I do have old timers though)
The list of bad rejects just continues to grow thanks Brady
 

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There’s a quote from Barassi that goes something like “we would never trade a decent player, if there any good we want them here playing with us “. I often think about that when we get players from other clubs.
Couldnt be more apt for the blokes we have had in the last 7 or so years.
 

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When the club has literally zero stability changing the footy department every 5 seconds, it's hard to put a gauge on who was a bust and who wasn't.
 
Is Jarrad Waite the last decent reject we had from another team? Could be wrong but cant remember any others (I do have old timers though)
The list of bad rejects just continues to grow thanks Brady

Waite was good because he had a good team around him
 
Dal Santo, Waite and Higgins were all free agents, not rejects.

Anyway, the answer is Liam Shiels.
 
Whoever it was, it was a while back. I actually rated Marley Williams' first year with us in 2017 but he fell away and there's certainly no one after that. Higgins & Waite were top players at the club they left and weren't let go. So I reckon the last time we found a diamond in the rough was Ben Jacobs?? or Aaron Edwards?

The better question is WHY haven't we?
  • Falling for "he was a high pick and we rated him in his draft year" (Bonar, Ahern, Polec, Tyson, Hall Coleman-Jones and now maybe Stephens) Yeah, but he's been a potato with obvious limitations ever since then, why is he magically going to turn it on for us?
  • Getting journeymen/limited players in to fill a 'need' (Walker, Campbell, Corr, Polec, Coleman-Jones). Logue falls into this too but he gets a pass for now.
  • Having literally no quality player wanting to come to us since Higgins & Waite. Can't get them if they don't want to come - and really, who can blame them?
  • Free swings that strike out (Greenwood, Howe, Menadue, Shiels). Worth a punt. Low risk for low reward.
  • Recruiting cats. (Stephenson, Polec) These guys had talent but just aren't going to change the culture of a team heading off a cliff. In fact, their lack of effort, work rate and physicality are killers for a young team.
  • Short term thinking (Hrovat, Hartung, Young, Menadue, Howe). These guys were never ever going to have a long career at North.
  • And more recently, we just need experienced players so we'll take anyone (Tucker, Howe, Shiels, Greenwood, Fisher)

Who is to blame?...everyone!
 
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There’s a difference between someone we actively recruited and a reject.

If you’re talking reject than perhaps Robbie Nahas. Big Sav was pretty good too but by definition you’re not going to get many decent players from the discard bin.
 

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