very much so
I do recall Dimma being quizzed about our recruiting strategy and not going for a "big fish"
he responded saying (and I think this will be close to a direct quote but cant recall when) if you go for a "big fish" you invariably lose a few the other way
and that crystalised something in my mind , we were competitive then , we had developing big guns but we didn't have the list depth
outside our top 25 the others were long term injured or young project players that weren't AFL ready
the recruiting needs for both top 22 and list depth are constantly changing due to unexpected retirements and young players failing to reach the levels required and losing players to free agency
and our recruting guys seemed to have transitioned from list building to list maintain very seamlessly
Interesting since the recycled hacks policy was abandoned, the club has had a few clearly discernible strategies and seems to be entering each trade/draft period with a clear target group in mind, sometimes two such groups. I am sure there were strategies before that but they are not as easy to distinguish from the strategy of “we like the look of this kid so let’s take a punt on him,” or, “we need some mature bodies for nothing, let’s grab whatever is available."
In 2014, top pick Ellis aside, the club mainly focussed on untried pacey small players in Menadue, Butler, Castagna, Short, Lambert, Drummond. Three remain on the list, three were essentially delisted. No trades were made in 2014, no recycled recruits, a clear departure from previous policy.
In 2015, athletic and fast players were targeted for a range of positions and roles. Rioli, Markov, Broad, Chol, Moore were brought in, along with a big trade for the quick Yarran. There is a hint of a secondary strategy for mature mids with Marcon and Townsend brought in. Some hits and misses, some as yet undecided.
In 2016 we went all in at the trade table to bolster the midfield with some quality stocks. Nankervis, Prestia, Caddy were brought in and Graham drafted. All strong and tough players who could add muscle where it was needed in the midfield. All of those remain and are thriving but if only two of them worked out then it still would have been a reasonable haul, three you’d be delighted. All four you are delirious. There is a clear secondary strategy there to bolster the small forward stocks, thus Bolton and Stengle. One remains, one is gone.
In 2017, the clear strategy was to target tall and key position players for the future. So you get Coleman-Jones, Balta, Miller. The secondary strategy is small players who use the ball well. Baker, Higgins, Naish. All remain at the club. Within a year or two, perhaps only two will remain from each group.
In 2018, we principally go for big bodied or tallish mids, Ross, Collier-Dawkins, Turner. To this group Pickett was added in the 2019 mid season draft.
In 2019, we seem to have come up with the approach of targeting a range of future mids and runners but also targeting club’s academies where the clubs with the discount on the players slightly curiously didn’t match our lowish bids.*
Along the way we have filled an immediate obvious need with Lynch, and grabbed a highly talented bargain in Stack who wasn’t necessarily part of a target group.
So what is the benefit of targeting a group of players with similar attributes together?
- it increases your chances of getting what you are after in that draft/trade period. If Butler doesn’t make it you have a chance with Castagna, if Balta doesn’t make it you have a chance with Miller, if Higgins doesn’t make it you have a chance with Baker and so on.
- it creates competition for roles from day one arrival at the club.
- it allows you to focus on the development of groups of similar players at the same time, perhaps reducing coaching resources devoted to your new intake.
- It makes it easier to assess who is better out of Butler and Castagna, Higgins or Baker, because you don’t have to adjust for different stages of development. Say Butler has been in the system 4 years and Castagna two and Butler is slightly but noticeably better than Butler, who do you keep, who do you trade? If however they were both brought in together and one is noticeably better than the other, then it is easy to assess.
- It probably reduces the anxiety around whether a certain individual player will work out. We are getting two and three chances at hitting pay dirt with every role we target. Therefore if a top pick like a Rioli, Bolton, Higgins, Collier-Dawkins or Dow don’t work out, it may not be a huge deal.
So we have kept Bolton, moved Stengle on, kept Castagna, moved Butler on, kept Graham, moved Miles on, kept Chol, moved Moore on.
Consequently we have healthy experienced and developing stocks of rucks, medium backs, running backs, inside mids, outside mids, key forwards, medium forwards, and small forwards. But for the unforeseen Rance retirement you would also say the same for key backs, but that remains a shallow area for now.
* The theorist in me wonders about these three picks, Nyuon, Martin, Cumberland. The Nyuon pick there must be some chance the Saints in trading for Butler and with little ammunition left after a range of other trades have said to us can we interest you in anything in our academy? A deal may have been struck for us to be able to use our lower than market value Butler pick by targeting Nyuon with an assurance from the Saints they wouldn’t match, as a sweetener to the Butler deal. Just a theory.
* The Martin and Cumberland recruitment from the Lions academy you would have to get a bit more creative to find some potential collusion there, but maybe it had its genesis 12 months earlier. The desperate GCS traded Miles and C Ellis for a relatively minor pick upgrade in return. The curious incident of Jarryd Lyons being allowed to go from GCS to Brisbane as a delisted free agent happened at the same time. Could it be Brisbane, brimming with quality youth but desperate for another mature mid, agreed to allow the Tigers some favours from their academy in the next draft, thus two very decent looking players in Martin and Cumberland come to us without Brisbane interfering. It suits us and the players also to bring the two from one place together to help them transition. The same going back the other way, Suns pick up two players coming together to help settlement and retention.