What other experienced forwards (I do not rate Morton as an experienced forward and Richo will not stay down there) do we have to educate our forwards over the next two years. Do we leave the youth to educate themselves with barly any guidence from experience and then bag the crap out of them when they don't know where and when to lead.
Even Hawthawn realised that experience counts when you are re-building..... Stuart Dew, Brent Guera (spelling), Shane Crawford (when everyone on the planet wanted him traded) and so on!!!!!!!!!
Only thing with that WAT is that you need 'good' experience to make it successful, not 'bad' experience. And when we only have 1 player with 'good' experience we are probably just as better off building our own 'good' experience than trying to import it. We already have a core of good young players with 50-100 games of match experience - teach them the core values of a winning culture and they will lead the way for the younger ones. That's the challenge for the new coaching group - teach and develop a winning culture to a group who is still young enough to learn it.
Bradshaw would bring 'good' experience. A triple premiership player from a side with a winning culture. The challenge of teaching and developing a winning culture would be much easier with someone like Bradshaw on the ground. Sure we now have Lade and Leppitch along side Hardwick, but you can only influence so much on the training track and from the grandstand come match day. You also need those qualities on the field. As it stands we really only have Cousins whop ticks those boxes as a player. Add one more and we effectively double the number of players with 'good experience'
The next 2 years doesn't matter to us in terms of wins/losses. It's more about playing and developing the cubs we have and will now draft and for them to show who is up to it moving forward. That's why we will overlook Bradshaw. He'll only give us a couple of years service at best. I know we picked up Cuz but there's plenty of positions available in a midfield rotation compared to just the couple of key forward positions in a side.
Win/Loss ratio does matter, particularly if you are trying to develop a winning culture, as is being competitive in the games you loose. A team loaded with young kids will cop some beltings, like lambs to the slaughter. While it could be argued that a flogging can be character building, regular beltings are simply demoralising and hold back the development of young players.
There is no-one in the current list, except perhaps cousins, who has shown they can stand up and inspire when either the game needs to be won, or when the the game is looking like getting out of reach in an ugly manner. Bradshaw does have the strength of character to do this.
Some would argue that Bradshaw would be taking Posts spot on the field. Post is only into his second year and to expect him to hold down a key position at the highest level is a big ask. To serve some apprenticeship time at Coburg would do him no harm and if he was performing there it would put pressure on Jack. This would install into these kids
1: That you have to perform over a period of time to earn your place in the seniors.
2; That when you get that senior spot, you have to perform to keep it.
It means that nothing can be taken for granted.
Successful sides, in any sport are those that have players that realise this.
The biggest problem is that Bradshaw wants a three year contract, and I think that into the third year, if Jack and Post develop as we would hope, then some of these arguments against him do become valid. There is also question marks over his fitness, so that makes him a bit of a risk, but sometimes hove have to take a chance to reap the rewards. As opposed to some of the other players under fitness/injury clouds being bandied about, Bradshaw would still have something to offer off the field if he did break down.
The other thing is that it would be a mistake not draft a young KPF in the draft, as you cannot make the assumption that these two will be the core of Richmond's forward line for the next ten years. Those sort of assumptions can really come back to haunt you.
