I think the debate is getting a bit muddled here with money and recruiting philosophies.
No one would really be against recruiting quality mature recruits and paying them a reasonable fee for their services.
I think most people would agree, we never should have recruited Chaplin. Hawthorn recruited, Gibson and Burgoyne, Port recruited, Monfries, White, Polec, Schultz etc. Other clubs recruited Dal Santo, Goddard, Ball, Crameri, list goes on. There have been some very good mature age recruits over the years.
Which leads us to Richmonds recruiting. Chaplin. Thomas. Petterd. Edwards. Lonergen. Stephenson. Dericx. Miller. Hislop. Polak. Hampson to name a few during Hardwick reign.
What the hell were they thinking? Not one quality player in this list. All those selections could have been used on kids who with the right development team in place, could potentially be stars. None of the players above will be anything better than average.
Every game they play is one less game given to blooding a quality kid. Every draft pick is one less young kid in our system. Is the clubs goal to win a flag or be middle of the road. You could argue the later looking at that list.
We let White go after not playing him, we held onto Vickery who had some market value but is clearly not interested, we lose Tyson who was keen to come to the club but we weren't aggressive enough trade wise, we gave Foley a long contract, despite not being able to play a full season for years.
We don't appear to have a genuine recruiting plan in place that will win us a flag. This club has more resources, better facilities than ever before and yet somehow our performances are as bad as they have ever been in so many different ways. No one should escape scrutiny.
I hope the legends of our club, after that disgraceful performance for Hafey lead the way in bringing about change and holding this club to account. Signing up an unproven coach after four years was every bit as disgraceful.