Hawk recruiter Chris Pelchen's rating of the Hawks' list. Yeah it's Hawthorn and biased but still a good read IMO.
He started with a few simple stats showing that we (Hawks) are the youngest list. Matches played we average 48.1 (total games of 2116) compared to Fremantle 76.5 (tg 3364). Geelong had an average of 55.8 (tg 2456). He noted that none of the top 5 (Freo, Mel, St k, WB and Ess) played finals.
He then proceeded to explain how the evaluate. Every AFL player on every list are rated as follows:
1 - Elite player (outstanding player of the AFL)
2 - Highly talented (very good player)
3 - Core player (likely to play mostly senior footy)
4A - improving player but not yet at AFL standard eg a well performed 1st yr draftee that hasn't played senior footy
4B - A below std player or declining or aging player.
5 - developing player eg rookie
in 2005 he rated our list as only having 2*1's and 4*2's. He thought we had 8 in the 4B category.
In 2007 mid season he rated our list as follows:
1 2 3 4A 4B 5
3 5 20 4 2 6
He rated Geelong's list as follows
5 6 20 4 1 3
His average talent ratings were as follows (lower the number the better):
Hawks 3.12 vs Geelong 2.87 vs WCE 2.97 vs Carlton 3.38
He rated the Saints to have the most talented list in 05 and 06 and said their window is now closed. He then rated the premiership teams from 05 and 06. He rated them as follows:
1 2 3 4A 4B 5
WCE 06 4 7 10 0 1 0
Syd 05 2 8 12 0 0 0
The averages of premiers since he has been keeping records were as follows:
1 2 3 4A 4B 5
4.6 8.2 8.4 0.6 0.2 0
He then also stated that he thought the Bris 01-04 lists were better than Geelongs but they were able to obtain this through players sacrificing the money for the team.
He then went on and spoke about how poor our kicking efficiency was when he arrived in 05 (76.2% rank 16th). This combined with our low average height and weight meant we needed a list overhaul. In 2007 we were in the top 4.
Our drafting and trading has been to address the kicking efficiency and size of the squad.
Our other issue was our TPP in 05. We were paying 24.9% of our salary to players ranked 4 compared to Brisbane who were paying 8.1% to their 4's. Our average player payment to the 4's was 137000 compared to Brisbanes 72000. In 2007 our 4's are receiving only 5.9% of TPP.
In 2005, he rated only 10 players (Roughead, Ladson, Brown, Mitchell, Franklin, Williams, Croad, Hodge and Lewis - I missed one sorry) as being capable of playing in our next premiership. This list has obviously changed since then.
Key targets of our recruiting where then discussed with a view to fielding a side on mainly 1's, 2's and 3's with the spine being mainly 1's. He has specifically targetted the deficiencies that he identified in 05 and stressed that we are not finished yet. I did get the impression though that this year we will be more selective in targetting specific positions rather than the best available. Did not mention which type we still required (eg crumber).
He concluded by saying that all players recruited must fit the following criteria which brought us back to the culture issue which he started off with.
1 Character - intelligence, leadership, and a team first attitude;
2 kicking - must be rated at least good or better; and
3 competitiveness - must have a high level of determination.
http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=381518
