What do you feel is most important?

[the claw]

just looking at the options.
what good is redevelopment and all the lovely facilities if the players we have are not good enough.
what good is a reserves teeam if its full of duds.
development coaches no good to us if the players we draft cant be developed.

nope if we want all these things kill of the debt and get into the black so we can actually afford these things. so off field debt is the biggie
if we want on field success recruiting is the be all and end all. its an area even if broke we should never scrimp on.

[RedanTiger]

So my first choice is not mentioned - Player Welfare.

Last year we lost Gilligan and Roberts.
This year Taylor and (possibly) Morton.
Martin only saved by the intereference of the club president providing sanctuary.

Miller said during his time that a new recruit costs about $200,000.
So each of the past two years we've burnt $400K for no result beyond a degenerating player culture.

Interesting that Bailey talked about Collingwood "investing" in their players. The results are clear.
You can recruit or try to develop the best players but if you fail on player welfare you get nil or very poor results.
Collingwood have shown the reverse - players with obvious flaws made into the best performers.

[Mr Magic]

its getting the horse in front of the cart.

This. A million times this.

Pick the right footballers and everything else gets a lot easier.

[tony_montana]

Recruitment.

We're improving on this front but ultimately this is where we need to make the best decisions if we're ever going to get this club up the top again.

agree every club lives or dies, or succeedes or fails on the back of its recruiting. there is no more important role at a footy club. i would have thought after 25 yrs of failure at the draft all rfc supporters would realise this.
its getting the horse in front of the cart.

Actually, apart from the top 15-20 elite in each draft(varies a little from draft to draft), there really isnt all that much between the overall group of kids looked at by all afl clubs prior to the draft. Each club knows the 100odd kids that will be drafted each year. Its not as if one or 2 clubs have dibs on secret players that other clubs don't know about(maybe 1 or 2 smokies), its not as if all the players richmond have drafted wouldnt be touched by other clubs like Tambling, meyer, polo, pattison,  etc etc etc. Fact is drafting is only the beginning - good development is the key and gives young players the best possible chance of realising their potential.