Draft Day Horrors (Inside Football)

[one-eyed]

DRAFT DAY HORRORS  .....   Missed opportunities the recruiters would love to have over again

By Ben Casanelia
Inside Football, Dec 09 - Feb 10 edition.

Every club has its draft hits and misses. Assessing teenage potential is an inexact science, after all. But some horror stories are worse than others - just ask the Tigers ....

In eight of the 10 drafts up to this year, Richmond's drafting has been little short of disasterous.

From Aaron Fiora with pick No.3 in 1999 and Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls pick No.8 in 2005 to Dean Putt with selection 51 in 2007, the Tigers have conjurred disaster after disaster from almost every draft class.

Most damning is the fact that since '99 the players taken immediately after Richmond's selections comprise a team that, on paper, would win a premiership.

Certainly a forward line containing Lance Franklin, Matthew Pavlich, Mark LeCras, Kurt Tippett, Angus Monfries and Chris Knights - all players the Tigers could have taken - would provide any opponent with a headache.

While the non-drafting of Pavlich (No.4) and Franklin (No.5) in 1999 and 2004 were poor decisions with the benefit of hindsight - the Tigers instead settled on Aaron Fiora (pick No.3, 1999) and Richard Tambling (No.4, 2004) - the failure to snare any of Tippett, Knights, Monfries or LeCras is equally mystifying.

After taking Tambling in 2004, the Tigers settled on Danny Meyer (now at Port Adelaide) with pick 12. Essendon drafted Angus Monfries with pick 16 (sic).

Later in the same draft Luke McGuane (pick 36) was drafted in preference to Mark LeCras who was snapped up with by the Eagles with pick 37.

McGuane could well develop into a productive player, but LeCras emerged this year as a bona fide star.

The nightmare didn't end there after Dean Limbach was added to the Tiger list with pick 52. Adelaide took Chris Knights with pick 56.

Two years later the Crows again took advantage of the Tigers' draft ineptness when they took Kurt Tippett with selection 32 - six picks after the Tigers went for the diminutive Shane Edwards at 26.

Others to escape the Tigers include David Hille, Shaun Higgins, Adam Selwood, Garrick Ibbotson, Nathan Van Berlo and Josh Hill.


CHOOSE AGAIN, TIGER!


              RICHMOND DRAFTED                  OVERLOOKED


1999        Aaron Fiora (pick 4)                    Matthew Pavlich (5)
               Ezra Poyas (22)                        Jason Blake (24)
               Scott Homewood (39)                David Hille (40)

2000       Kayne Pettifer (9)                       Shaun Burgoyne (12)
              Chris Hyde (40)                          Mark Williams (43)
              Steve Sziller (57)                        Graham Johncock (67)

2002       Jay Schulz (12)                         Jared Rivers (26)
              Tim Fleming (41)                       Kade Simpson (45)
              Bill Nicholls (47)                       Adam Selwood (53)
              Daniel Sipthorp (62)                  Nick Malceski (64)

2003       Alex Gilmour (21)                     Jed Adcock (33)
              Thomas Roach (f-s, 37)            Ricky Dyson (44)

2004       Richard Tambling (4)                Lance Franklin (5)
              Danny Meyer (12)                    Angus Monfries (14)
              Adam Pattison (16)                  Nathan Van Berlo (24)
              Luke McGuane (36)                 Mark LeCras (37)
              Dean Limbach (52)                  Chris Knights (56)

2005       Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls (8 )       Shaun Higgins (11)
              Cleve Hughes (24)                   Garrick Ibbotson (26)
              Travis Casserly (40)                 Andrew Swallow (43)

2006       Shane Edwards (26)                Kurt Tippett (32)
              Daniel Connors (58 )               Josh Hill (61)

2007       Dean Putt (51)                       Cale Hooker (61)


HOW TIGERS COULD BE LINING UP ...

B:   Graham Johncock         Jared Rivers         Jason Blake

HB: Nick Malceski              Cale Hooker        Adam Selwood

C:   Nathan Van Berlo        Andrew Swallow    Kade Simpson

HF: Angus Monfries          Matthew Pavlich     Mark LeCras

F:   Kurt Tippett                 Lance Franklin      Chris Knights

R:   David Hille,   Shaun Burgoyne,    Shaun Higgins

Int: Jed Adcock, Ricky Dyson, Mark Williams, Garrick Ibbotson



FIRST ROUND KNOCKOUTS!

1987
pick 1 - Richard Lounder, Richmond - 4 games
pick 3 - Graham Wright, Collingwood - 201 games

1999
pick 3 - Aaron Fiora, Rich/St Kilda - 140 games
pick 4 - Matthew Pavlich, Fremantle - 213 games*

2004
pick 4 - Richard Tambling, Richmond - 95 games*
pick 5 - Lance Franklin, Hawthorn - 102 games, 305 goals*

2005
pick 8 - Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, Richmond - 13 games
pick 9 - Mitch Clark, Brisbane - 46 games*

* still playing     

[Danog]

How dare they mention Tambo in this.

[Owl]

Havn't read so much hot spank since ...the last article....

[Go Richo 12]

What about the other teams that could have also picked up these players before it got to our pick?

[wayne]

What a monumental error it was missing Knights at 56!!! He was overlooked 55 times by every other club!!

Tippett was overlooked 31 times. I'm sure the Blues, Demons, Magpies... actually i'm sure every side apart from Adelaide would be p*ssed that they missed him.

That mock team has a terrible backline.

LOL at us missing out on Dyson, BIG DEAL, and Jared Rivers might have won a Rising Star, but (mainly due to injury) has been unsighted ever since. 

[RollsRoyce]

Articles like this one explain why I never buy Inside Football, except for the annual draft guide issue. Even by the extremely low standards of most of the media in this town when it comes to Richmond, this particular stinking little rag has an almost Tony Shaw-esque level of contempt for the Tigers. They seem to take delight in sticking the boot into us at every opportunity.
Apparently their circulation is pretty low, and I would love to see them go under.

[the_boy_jake]

How dare they mention Tambo in this.

Why? Tambo started slowly, really got going towards the middle of the season and faded again. He's now a senior player with 5 seasons, 100 games under his belt, should be approaching his best footy and needs to start playing consistently well.

[Harro80]

I have to say, That list we could of had looks nice. 

[mightytiges]

How dare they mention Tambo in this.

If the Dogs don't win the flag this year with Barry Hall, I would say them choosing Griffen ahead of Buddy has hurt them more. They've been crying out for a quality matchwinning key forward for years. Even when Wallace was still coaching them in the late 90s. All they had was Chris Grant and they needed him to play key defence most of the time.

I also would've thought in 2004, Meesen at pick 8, Egan at 10 and Thomson at 11 who have been total misses for the clubs that selected them were obvious far worst choice that Blingers  .

Then there's the obvious fact the media conveniently leave out over the Fiora/Pavlich pick. The club that picked Pavlich has been no less pathetic than we have.

Yeah our recruiting has been crap for a long time but it was more due to our poor recruiting philosophy, lack of proper resources and continual lack of understanding of how the draft system works over 20 years  rather than just individual picks. Looking at that 22 apart from the strong forward line it has severe weaknesses as wayne mentioned especially in the back 6. It may make the finals with a good injury run but it wouldn't win a flag.

This article was just another attempt to stir in a quiet footy time of year.

[tony_montana]

what a pathetic puff piece

[WilliamPowell]

I am not quite sure I would put LeCras in the "bona fide" star category just yet 

Jon Brown is a bona fide star.... so IMHO LeCras is a ways off

[mightytiges]

I am not quite sure I would put LeCras in the "bona fide" star category just yet 

Jon Brown is a bona fide star.... so IMHO LeCras is a ways off

True WP. LeCras was in hot form last year but one year doesn't make any player a "bona fide" star. We saw that with Rainesy sadly  . The best players in the comp. star week in week out year in year out.

[tdy]

How dare they mention Tambo in this.

If the Dogs don't win the flag this year with Barry Hall, I would say them choosing Griffen ahead of Buddy has hurt them more. They've been crying out for a quality matchwinning key forward for years. Even when Wallace was still coaching them in the late 90s. All they had was Chris Grant and they needed him to play key defence most of the time.

I also would've thought in 2004, Meesen at pick 8, Egan at 10 and Thomson at 11 who have been total misses for the clubs that selected them were obvious far worst choice that Blingers  .

Then there's the obvious fact the media conveniently leave out over the Fiora/Pavlich pick. The club that picked Pavlich has been no less pathetic than we have.

Yeah our recruiting has been crap for a long time but it was more due to our poor recruiting philosophy, lack of proper resources and continual lack of understanding of how the draft system works over 20 years  rather than just individual picks. Looking at that 22 apart from the strong forward line it has severe weaknesses as wayne mentioned especially in the back 6. It may make the finals with a good injury run but it wouldn't win a flag.

This article was just another attempt to stir in a quiet footy time of year.

Great comment. Our issues have been systemic not individual hits or misses from picks.