My issues with Cameron as initially our list manager and then promoted to head of our footy dept....
(i) In his first draft (2008) as list manager we only picked up two kids (Vickery and Post) when we were meant to be rebuilding our list. He then traded a decent 3rd round pick for Adam Thomson who couldn't kick to save himself and as a inside mid couldn't get a game in a bottom 4 Port side that was crying out for inside mids. Cameron gave some garbage reasoning about Thomson being the number 1 clearance player in the AFL per time on ground. Then he used a 4th round pick on Hislop. That kind of recruiting was no different to under Greg Miller's reign who Cameron replaced.
(ii) When Wallace was sacked mid-2009, Cameron by then was head of the footy dept. and should have mapped out plan for the next 3 years to maximise our draft selections and use the draft system and priority pick rules to our advantage. The club knew GC and GWS would hog the 2010-11 drafts and the club knew we were going down the youth path. We had just 2 wins at the midpoint of 2009 so Cameron should have instructed caretaker coach Jade Rawlings to make sure via team selections and matchday match-ups we won no more than 2 more games to gain a end of round 1 priority pick which could have got us one of Nathan Fyfe or Ryan Bastinac. Instead we threw it away winning meaningless games against other bottom sides in the second half of the season.
(iii) Just 4 wins in 2009 would have also set us up to get picks 4 and 6 in the 2010. We knew we had the very young and inexperienced list and a new first-time senior coach and that showed losing the first 9 games. Once again we reached the midpoint of the season with hardly a win on the board and once again threw a chance of getting priority pick winning games in the second half of the season to exceed the 4 win mark. So we could have still got Conca plus one extra top kid such as a Heppel, Lynch or Gaff for example.
So in total not planning to make the most of priority picks on offer in the past two years has cost us another two quality young players who could have played for us alongside Cotch, Martin, Jack and co. for the next decade. It's no point complaining about lack of funds for recruiting if you throw away the chance to gain bonus top 20 draft picks. Sure people can say we screwed up our top picks in 2004-5 but since 2006 when Francis Jackson went full time as a recruiter he has drafted Jack, Cotch, Rance, Vickery, Martin, Griffiths and Conca with our top 20 picks which is a pretty good return. Too bad we were dumb as a club and didn't give him the chance of two more top 20 picks!
(iv) Wasting rookie list spots on keeping or recycling duds such as Hislop and Miller. Richmond has been there done that many times in the past.
(v) Some re-signings have been quite questionable such as giving McGuane as 3 year contract ???.
(vi) Our fitness staff has basically remained the same since Wallace was still senior coach.
Another thing that needs addressing is we still have a too small and light-weighted playing list. We have an excess of smalls and most aren't up to AFL level. It's no point drafting players under 6ft unless they have exceptional skills, speed and footy smarts.
