Its interesting to look at the make up of last years premiership side.
6/24 (1/4) were recruited from other clubs.
of the 16 drafted by whorethorn themselves;
9 (over half) were top 20 picks - 5 of which were top 10
4 10-20
1 20-30
3 30-40
2 40 plus with 66 being the latest pick.
1 rookie draft
of these later picks, 2 were mature age players from state leagues.
so 3/4 of the team were either recruited from other clubs or were top 20 draft picks
an interesting thing to do would be look at freo the r/u after all it took two teams to make the day.
hmm 22 players on each side g/f day.
3 from other clubs dawson, mcpharlin, pearce.
2/ 1 - 10. pavlich, hill
2/ 11 - 20. fyfe, mundy.
2/ 21 - 30. ballantyne, suban.
just 40% of their team thus far.
3/ 31 - 40. clarke, mayne, mzungu.
4/ 41 onwards. crowley, neale, sutcliffe, walters.
6/ psd/rookie. barlow, deboar, duffield, sandilands, spurr, johnson.
60% taken after pick 30. of which 6 are state league picks. and theres 7 state league players all up.
if freo relied on players from other clubs and top 30 picks they would never make finals yet alone go close to winning a gf.
it all just goes to show there is not just the high pick route to building. its all about utilising all areas and all opportunities.
we can ignore this but if we do we will always struggle.
yeah, it is all about utilising all areas. I was curious about freos makeup, i just hadnt the time or inkilng to look at it just yet.
Sydneys would be another worth checking out, and probably st kildas from their runners up years.
Just a question claw, if we had lost a grand final with that sort of difference in the make up between our side and the premiers, would you be lauding our success with later picks, or bemoaning how our poor strike rate with early picks cost us a premiership?
After all, as you say, getting the early picks is easy......
