its mistakes like giving away a very good pick for McMahon when we could have kept it and offered something substantially lesser that makes the supporters disappointed Moi.
How can you make a judgement like that?
How do you know the player we might have picked up would be any better.
And if the draft is only 20 deep, what precisely have we really missed out on.
Is it just having picks for picks sake, to live in hope, or is to use them where deemed appropriate.
TW will live or die by these decisions, but he's the only one who has set down a plan - boring to some I know - but it's far better to someone like me who hated the club moving forward reacting to what supporters thought.
Our own past history of doing these sort of trades as well as of other clubs who topped up (Freo, St K) would say it's a misguided strategy. It leaves you with the missing age-bracket we have now and you may miss out on more talented footballers that win games of footy for you. If we are on a 2011+ success timeframe then picking up a 24 year old who'll be 28+ by then doesn't make sense to me especially as he doesn't alleviate any of our major deficiencies - onball (both in quality and quantity), in the ruck and at full back. McMahon is a HBFer. The only thing I can think of is the Club expects a Rainesy, Newy and/or Kingy to push into the midfield next year and become the quality ballwinners and clearance winners we desperately need alongside Foley while McMahon takes their place.
It's true Moi, the kid we could have got at pick 19 may have flopped but it's not about just one pick. It's about playing the percentages. It's about bringing through more and more kids each year via a number of picks knowing the better the pick the better the odds of the kid making it and the more kids the better the chance of finding star players. By trading away a good pick, it comes across as the Club lacking faith in its recruiting/scouting/spotting processes, believing it "safer" to trade for a known quantity than drafting a "unknown" kid.
The secret to the draft IMHO is keeping hold of your good picks and then if possible trying to trade for more decent picks so you're adding better quality young footballers each year; Not trading away good picks and ending up with less especially when we're in full rebuilding mode. If we trade away and limit the number of picks and hence the number of kids we draft then we become more and more reliant on every kid we recruit to make it which is unrealistic. It leaves holes in your list in 5-10 years time. We also limit the chance of developing our own star players. This year will be the 22nd draft so the Club should know how it all works by now.
This isn't meant to be a whinge but just my opinion on good/bad recruiting practices. Having now said that McMahon will probably win our B&F lol.
