Fair rookie draft that year.....any two of Wellingham, Harbrow, Suckling or Macaffer ahead of Tasman Clingan & Jake King would've been handy.
Ok. Tell us who we should rookie this year since you know better.
Was just pointing out it was a fair rookie draft that year not wasn't implying I knew better at the time ....besides, how the stuff would I know who'll even be available in this year's rookie draft before we've even had the National Draft or PSD yet? twit.
Also, have you considered that we may have recruited well but or player development has meant that all but the very best can ever progress? So it may have nothing to do with player choice. Probably has been that way at Richmond for many years.
It's clearly been a combination of poor recruiting and poor development over the years....they exacerbate each other.
The two picks from 2006 rookie draft are not really an example of this though....Clingan was just poor recuiting alone and I doubt he would've made it at any club. Many junior watchers & experts at the time were astonished he made it onto an AFL list, even as a rookie.
You could make several arguments for & against King - doubt any other club could've got much more out of him than we have - but it's probably down to his own desire & work ethic more than anything we ever instilled in him. On the other hand he probably wouldn't have played close to even half the games at any other club than he has with us, which is also an indictment on the club. People forget he was pretty atrocious for the first few years (except when he played Collingwood & Carlton) and really only had one purple patch of about a year an a half, of which he was red hot for about a half a season and was arguably one of our most important players and had an onfield presence that was only matched at the club when Maric arrived. Most clubs however would've likely delisted him before that though and I personally thought he was close to the worst player in the AFL - an over excitable, ill-disciplined headless chicken- before he came good. (Too be fair he was being played in wrong part of the ground for the first half of his career too.) In the wash up though he was a good get for a second round rookie pick and probably second only to Foley as our best ever rookie pick up....which again could be seen as another indictment on the club.
In hindsight, I'd hazard a guess that the other players mentioned would've been at the very least on a par with King at his best even if they'd been half as good as they are with our crap development. We could certainly do with Suckling's footskills coming out of the back half, that's for damn sure.
