Well Hardwick obviously has NFI.
Claw said it was bad and so it must be. Dimma clearly delusional in the following article.
"Hardwick also expressed overall satisfaction with Richmond’s recruiting over the past couple of months, which has netted the Club a further seven players (Hampson, Ben Lennon, Nathan Gordon, Sam Lloyd, Todd Banfield, Anthony Miles, Matt Thomas).
“Our recruiting guys have done a terrific job once again,” he said.
“The great thing about it, from a coaching point of view, and a football club overall, is every November you get to improve your side, and that’s what we did again this year.”
http://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/2013-12-11/hardwick-happy-with-hampson
just two things. whos blaming hardwick ive often said i really hope the case is our coach has minimal input into recruiting and list management.
oh of course hardwick is going to say hes happy with who we got. what else can he say.
i dont get the angst. all because one or two people are saying bloody hell why just one kid in lennon, why so so so many mature and veteran types where is the balance.
personally ive strongly advocated we take our fair share of mature players even veterans, but never take these older types almost exclusively. which is exactly what we have done.
bloody hell i would have been over the moon if we could have taken chapman , but in f/a and we still take our share of kids. there are plenty state leaguers i like take em cheap take 4 or 5 but bloody hell lets still take our proper share of kids.
only one club did forgo almost entirely youth. that club was us. i would have been happy with 3 kids 5 mature or vice versa. not the 1 to 7 ratio we ended up with.
ive debated long and hard about the processes we go thru and getting them right. this is not a process id ever want us to go thru again because its just too lopsided.
ive always advocated kids in the first 3 rounds within reason, mature players after that point with in reason. of course there can be some variations. . im a firm believer if you regularly go thru good processes and stick to em you build a good footy team with few list problems.
ive been in the main happy with how we have gone about most things, the number of kids where we take our mature players finding a good balance. that is until this trade/draft period.
finally hardwick has no idea nor do we if those we have taklen will improve us. atm we hope they will. that little bug bear wont be known until well into next yr. with so many mature players taken you would want to hope they offer something significant.