Collingwood definitely tanked in 2005 to get both Pendelbury and Thomas in the top 5 of the draft. They put all their senior players in cotton wool and sent them off to get surgery so they were right to go for the preseason.
Hawthorn went the youth path in 2005-6. They tanked a game against us late in 2005. We came from 7 goals down with Pettifer kicking the winning goal. I still remember a Hawk fan near me cheering they had kept their priority pick.
Saints, Dogs, Carlton and now Melbourne have gone down the "tank" path. It hasn't hurt them. Will one of the first two win the flag this year?
Voss and Roos have topped up with mature recruits. Will their respective clubs win a flag with their lists though?
If there are priority picks this year as claimed in the media then serious questions should be asked of Craig Cameron and the match committee last year for winning/drawing meaningless games in the second half of last year. Most of that match committee are now gone elsewhere to other clubs so thanks guys for looking after our future
. Not only did this rubbish about "winning culture" cost us another top 20 pick in last year's draft but it will cost us the chance of getting both picks 4 and 6 in the November draft this year. Why should the AFL help us with a freebie early priority pick when we as a club foregoed that very opportunity ourselves through a very own stupidity and lack of foresight and planning.