Saints need leap of recruiting faith
Jake Niall | September 22, 2008
IN 2001, a team coached by an ex-St Kilda captain reached the preliminary final. It had been smashed in the first final by the top team and reigning premier, but the double chance gave it another shot. In week two, it duly rebounded and vanquished a hated rival.
But that second chance would prove irrelevant, as this good-average team — which had fallen into fourth in the final round — was dismantled by the emerging premiership challenger.
At the end of that season, Danny Frawley's Richmond would "top up" with seasoned recruits, in the deluded belief that it was close to a premiership. The Tigers have not seen a finals series since.
The Saints of 2008 followed the Richmond 2001 script, with a meaty second-week victory over Collingwood sandwiched between terrible hidings by the top two.
Often reminded of how the Tigers miscalculated and then paid in the subsequent seasons — a situation caused partly by salary cap issues — Frawley yesterday cautioned his old club against replicating the Richmond pattern of seeking to fill one or two holes with seasoned recruits.
Frawley knows first-hand how a preliminary final can be the fool's gold that never leads to silverware.
"They (the Saints) need to look at where they're going to be in three years' time."
Noting the patience shown by both Hawthorn and Geelong, the former Richmond coach and St Kilda captain said long-term decisions might take the club "three steps back and six steps forward."
Frawley is among those who believes that, far from needing to top up, the Saints would be well-served if they managed to obtain an extra first-round pick. Finding one, however, will require an act of list-management courage.
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