This belongs in a different thread, but I agree RR the AFL is in denial and the draft system needs to change to provide incentive for bottom sides to win. A NBA-style lottery for the bottom half of the ladder would help.
However, while the current system is in place, winning meaningless games against other bottom sides late in the season proves nothing. Moreso, if you have the chance to secure a bonus priority pick at or near the top end of the draft then any club which then misses out on one by just 1-2 wins is stupid.
In 2009 we were on just 2 wins when Wallace was sacked midway through the season. Under Rawlings we then beat Essendon by just 5 pts, a tanking Melbourne by a kick after the siren and drew with North when we were a goal down with a minute to play. So for a couple of goals extra we cost ourselves having a 10 year player of the quality of a Nathan Fyfe or even a Ryan Bastinac. Move forward to 2010 and we have just one win by the midpoint and we come from 33 down to beat Sydney by 3 points and scrape home against an inaccurate Adelaide who should have put us away by half-time. Again two narrow meaningless wins has cost us another 10 year player such as a Heppel or Lynch (Suns' young gun FF) or even a Andrew Gaff who will push his way into a fast improving Eagles line-up. Call it "cheating" all you want but that's how you need to play the off-field recruiting game because that's how the smart clubs play it. Sure we can stick to sitting on our high moral pedestal while we remain in the bottom 4 for 10 years and counting while other clubs fall down and then rise right back past us to the top of the ladder
. Sorry I prefer instead to build a strong classy list as quickly as possible within the rules allowed just as most other clubs do.
ps. Just one stat for everyone to think about - if you just take the first half of the past 5 seasons, we have won a measely 10 wins from 55 matches
. That's on average just 2 wins by the season midpoint for the past 5 years straight. Our year has been over within the first two months if not the first month in each of those 5 years. Any club with that pitiful record needs additional help in gaining quality players to improve its onfield performance and the AFL actually has a system already in place if a club is smart to provide extra early-ish picks for clubs that hardly win a game year after year - it's called priority picks. Too bad that after the past 5 years of pain and crap we have NO priority picks to show for it when we had the chance to gain them
. Compare that to the Eagles who just 4 years after winning a flag tanked to gain a priority pick which enabled then to add Darling. Our supporters like to put blame on the coach and/or the players but it is those higher up the chain that are at fault. Not a braincell between them when it comes to understanding how to take full advantage of the draft system
. That's not including either picking up recycled duds like Thomson, Hislop, Miller under Cameron's watch and feeding supporters a whole lot of bulldust as to why they'll be good recruits
. As a club we only have ourselves to blame for continually doing things half-hearted and keeping us in mediocrity. Right now I must admit I have little confidence in the leadership of the Club as far as those connected with the footy dept
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