15 other clubs would have drafted Lids at 1. He is one of the best Number 1 picks that has been drafted. I hate how he gets caught up in the Buddy / Tambling conversation. He was always the best player in the draft, and his likeness to Chris Judd who everyone was raving about was insane.
It was actually quite similar to the Harley Reid hype with similarties to Dusty, with the don't argue and strength for such a young player. Lids had pace to burn and with his height and foot skills he was screaming the next Judd. He was an outstanding player.
Tambling again, was rated so highly just about every single prediction was him at number 2. Him being at 4 seemed a huge steal, and with our key forward stocks we didn't need to draft one so passing on Franklin seemed fairly clever drafting. Ended up we missed out on 1000 goals and the rest is history.
I'm adament if the 15 other clubs were in our shoes, with our list stocks, they all draft the same as we did with Lids and Tambling. The other picks were just poor and our development went to the dogs.
Don't remember Tambling being rated so highly. One knock was judging him being a div 2 prospect against div 1 prospects. Many had grave concerns including me.
Quite clearly we were into Roughhead but opened our traps.
Buddy Franklin as a junior was sensational given his height. The only knock on him was he was supposed to be a poor trainer he liked parties more. That turned out to be an absolute Furphy i would not be surprised if Hawthorn started that rumour themselves.
Two clubs over looked Tambling Griffen pick and the Roughead pick.
Lids was a good player but in hindsight I would have preferred Roughead.
A super draft year. Oh to have a crystal ball.
We traded Fiora for Simmonds, who I rated. A good trade. Losing Ottens sucked badly.
The dream draft:
1 Roughead, just to secure him.
4 Franklin
12 Van Berlo
16 Rosa
20 LeCras
36 Maric
52 Knights
Rookie
1 Gibson
17 Morris
33 Grundy
47 Edwards
Simmonds #1 ruck with Maric to develop.
Franklin and Roughead coming in with Richo still around.
Some mids in Van Berlo, Rosa, not world beaters but solid.
Some useful forwards in LeCras, Knights Edwards.
And one heck of a Rookie backline in Josh Gibson, Dale Morris and Heath Grundy - honestly insane to see those 3 were all Rookied!
I know Jordan Lewis is a bit of a knob but those players after pick 4 in front of him Really.
Their was only about 7 players taken in the top 20 that you would call passes. The best 5 went in the first 7 picks. After that very slim pickings indeed. Very shallow draft indeed.
It was not a draft to have 5 top twenty picks. Shows just how poorly run we were. We traded out of one of the strongest drafts of all time for an aging ruckman and three years later in a pee poor draft we had to trade for another ruckman.
They had no idea and it did not get any better real soon.
