its funny how people just forget about the kingsley thing like it never happened
that was purely wallace's decision which he thought could of pushed us into a mediocre 9th/10th position again, sure he didnt cost much but it was the fact we recruited a 29yr old when we are in a rebuilding peroid that was most dissapointing
bowden was handy for a game or two in 06 but he was never going to be long term - what was the point?
hmmmm mark graham aswell
great recruiting terry, your doing a spendid job
Out of the last 4 drafts how many 'older' players have we recruited? 4 or 5 out of how many?
How many good choices have we made over the last 4 years? I would say there were more positives choices than bad.
What about the Frawley years? Now that was terrible recruiting and the reason why we have such a gap in our list. Why aren't you pointing the finger there?
What about other clubs? Every year there are almost as many failures as successes with recruits.
TW has made far more great choices than poor ones. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone is a genius in retrospect but as long as he continues to improve our list then I for one will continue to have faith in him.
Here are the 'bad' choices -
Mark Graham was a necessary inclusion and allowed us to almost play finals and add valuable experience and leadership to our backline.
Patrick Bowden was a great recruit at the time which added height, skill and leadership to our team. He played far more good games than he did bad but with injuries and the inclusion of Polak (who plays an almost identical role) his time was up. He was only 25 when he was recruited which was the exact age group we were missing.
Knobel had a fantastic year in 2006 and was a great 2nd tap ruckman for us. We needed more ruckmen which allowed us the luxury of playing Stafford in the forwardline. Injuries and his style of play caused his eventual demise.
Kingsley was free. He cost us the minimal player wage. Plain and simple. He was Geelongs leading goal kicker for years and was released from Geelong for personal issues between himself and the coach. Almost every expert at the time heralded his recruitment to the Tigers as a masterstroke. TW/Miller saw him as a terrific foil and motivation for our young forwards, able to pass on his experience and knowledge during training. At Geelong he was forced to play as there number one forward where at Richmond he had the opportunity to be play as the 2nd or even 3rd forward where he had the potential to strengthen up our forward line significantly and make it far less predicatable.
Cartledge and Howat are insurance. In a weak and shallow draft they were taken in case of injuries.
I would love you to make a list of all the good recruitment choices that have been made over the last four years. If the bad out number the good then I think you have a reason to be so angry at TW's recruitment but if the good out number the bad then...perhaps you may need to face the truth - TW IS doing a good job afterall.
Stripes