Ellis was one of the Hawks best players in the GF until he went off injured. I'd have such a highly skilled player in his early 20s who stands up in the big games at Richmond.
In any case the argument is not a case of this pick number is better than that pick number when the gap between the picks is just three. We are instead comparing 3 picks in the top 20 compared to just one. It's playing the odds to boost your chances of picking up more good kids collectively. We are comparing picks 2, 18, 19, 35, 51 with picks 8, 24, 40, 56, 72. So compare what was available at pick 18 (priority pick) with what was available at pick 72 if you're going to compare draft picks. That's the difference. Tanking provides you with an extra early draft pick. To argue that receiving a free gimme extra top 20 pick provides no advantage is an strange way to argue against tanking ???. Remember this draft lacks depth due to GC17 having exclusive access to the 17 year olds. That's one third of a normal draft missing in November.
What those arguing against the extra early pick also forget is the extra pick gives the Club room to delist another player who isn't up to it. Rather than cutting a McMahon and replacing him with a kid at pick 72 who has a low percentage of making it, you are replacing Jordie with a top 20 pick (which we should have done in the first place
).
As I said it's all about playing and improving the odds at the draft table.
