Most recruiters point to a 5 year time frame to assess success.
Process is one things, the facts are another - the only fact worth looking to is the win/loss column over the last 5 years vs the prior 5 years along with absolute list turn over.
Facts are we've removed almost everyone from the 2009 list and gone from 4 wins to 15.
Facts speak for themselves, emotions do as well they just have a much lower impact on the argument
so francis failed abysmally in his first 5 yrs and in his next 4 yrs we managed to make finals once. even in his last 4 yrs we have won just 39 of 88 games. no emotion just facts.
my point is we would not have had to cut most of the list from 2009 if francis had an inkling in 05 06 07 08 09. hence the real need to judge people, the players and the club on the whole of their time not just one yr windows or selective 4 yr periods. imo we should have at the least been playing finals 5 yrs ago if the recruiters had done their job.
finally i would argue strongly that the players who have driven the 15 wins this yr are the very few we took prior to 2010. and the experienced mature recruits like chaplin and maric.
cotchin deledio even jackson this yr martin newman rance and riewoldt thats 7 and 4 of em are jacksons. thats just 4 good footballers from the nd in a 5 yr period. we want to hope the next 5 yr period doesnt pan out the same way.
nope id argue to the cows come home, that we can and should be doing better in the nd.
what i dont get is why so many are averse to aiming for beytter and we do need to be better and continually improve if we wish to properly compete in this comp.
I'm with you here Claw. For quite some time I've suspected Jackson of being an average to poor recruiter. I think Hartley is quite good but it is a team effort, or it is these days as we have a recruiting team. I was willing to give Jackson a break for 05 06 as we weren't a full time team of recruiters. Since then it is worrying the number of second rounders who are barely making it. Generally I hope for 2 or more players from each draft, 1st, 2nd rounders and one of the rest. If you can't get that hit rate then after 6 or 7 years you don't have enough of a team and players are getting too old and injured or leaving.
I think the notable weaknesses in ND recruiting has been KPP, jack and Rance being the best two finds, Vickery being acceptable when not injured but not a gun with a pile of possibilities failing, Post, or being marginal Astbury, Griffiths, Moore etc
I thought Batchelor with his strength would come on better and he still may but he seems to be the stereotype of a Jackson second rounder. Thereabouts, maybe , maybe not. I hope he does come on and be the next Chris Johnson or Brad Scott.
What you ideally want its to find a Chapman at pick 35 every year and someone better at pick 8 but that's dreamland. Not even Geelong do that.