Revisiting the 2004 draft .

[Andyy]

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.

Missed Lewis. Swap someone else for him.

[TigerLand]

We could also look at this in a different way.

Yes we missed Franklin / Roughead. But Deledio and Tambling had some impact on building the dynasty team. Tambling helped us acquire funding and direction for our indigenous institute which helped support Shane Edwards, Daniel Rioli, Shai Bolton, Marlion Pickett. Also helped Benny and Peggy with their vision of the club. Prior to this our indigenous player strike rate was very poor.

Deledio meant we needed Key position player in later draft which meant we drafted Jack Riewoldt and Vickery who then turned into Shai Bolton pick. Call me bias but I take Jack over Buddy (half a career in Vic) or Roughead any day.

I'm absolutely convinced that we stuff up Franklin and Roughead development, compared to Hawks had a better midfield compliment for them with Mitchell, Hodge, Sewell, Lewis, Burgoyne where as ours was deployed and in need of some top end talent with Campbell close to retiring and Johnson really the only decent mid before we unearthed Foley.

[the claw]

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.

lol 😂
A furphy?

He was that bad partying at the start that Hawthorn employed a full time minder to keep him in line. This is common knowledge.

but it’s as far from a furphy as there is

Lmfao as it turned out he was one of the hardest trainers they had from the get go.
He had the hunger. Like Dusty he just didnt bow to a lot of the goody two shoe crowd about having to be squeaky clean. It was the biggest load of bunkum i have ever read or seen.

We could also look at this in a different way.

Yes we missed Franklin / Roughead. But Deledio and Tambling had some impact on building the dynasty team. Tambling helped us acquire funding and direction for our indigenous institute which helped support Shane Edwards, Daniel Rioli, Shai Bolton, Marlion Pickett. Also helped Benny and Peggy with their vision of the club. Prior to this our indigenous player strike rate was very poor.

Deledio meant we needed Key position player in later draft which meant we drafted Jack Riewoldt and Vickery who then turned into Shai Bolton pick. Call me bias but I take Jack over Buddy (half a career in Vic) or Roughead any day.

I'm absolutely convinced that we stuff up Franklin and Roughead development, compared to Hawks had a better midfield compliment for them with Mitchell, Hodge, Sewell, Lewis, Burgoyne where as ours was deployed and in need of some top end talent with Campbell close to retiring and Johnson really the only decent mid before we unearthed Foley.

Its like people are trying to defend the indefensible still after all this time.

One word describes our drafting efforts from 01, 02, 03, 04, and 05 Horrendous.Yet people want to rewrite history with head in the sand bull poo.

[Francois Jackson]

Well said Claw. Couldn't agree more.

[MintOnLamb]

1999 draft our pick 3 Fiora over Pavlich at pick 4, massive miss

Plus 2014 Ben Lennon, patrick Cripps next pick

[Damo]

Well said Claw. Couldn't agree more.

He’d love that

Never been wrong in his life and the rest of us are all stuffwits (you included)

Side note - he’s wrong on the Franklin party comment as a starting point. So if that’s the part you’re agreeing with, so are you. As for the draft part, he might be right there. But providing truthful stories of how things transpired with Deledio/Tambling/Roughy/Buddy is factual. Hardy “rewriting history and head in the sand bull poo”

[Andyy]

Well said Claw. Couldn't agree more.

He’d love that

Never been wrong in his life and the rest of us are all stuffwits (you included)

Side note - he’s wrong on the Franklin party comment as a starting point. So if that’s the part you’re agreeing with, so are you. As for the draft part, he might be right there. But providing truthful stories of how things transpired with Deledio/Tambling/Roughy/Buddy is factual. Hardy “rewriting history and head in the sand bull poo”

He did think he might be wrong once...

...but he was mistaken

[Diocletian]

claw used to think he was perfect until one day he said to himself "c'mon mate, you're better than that..."

[Gracie]

All the missed drafting trading errors of the early/mid 2000s led to Cotchin and Martin etc and to three premiership. I for one am not changing anything

[camboon]

But will we learn from History, I hope so.

[lamington]

Lest we forget, Tambling to McMahon for a shot on goal after the siren 

[Hard Roar Tiger]

But will we learn from History, I hope so.

We did. People for some reason have forgotten our drafting from 2006 until 2009 which was extraordinary. Even since then, it was pretty good - especially with rookie and late picks.

[camboon]

Some people have forgotten the last time we had 5 first round picks our recruiter's made a meal of it by asserting their own agenda’s , I hope history doesn’t repeat itself ,
On the positive in other years since the start of the draft ,we have had some amazing and some appealing results ! We didn’t win a premiership without some great work.

[Hard Roar Tiger]

Some people have forgotten the last time we had 5 first round picks our recruiter's made a meal of it by asserting their own agenda’s , I hope history doesn’t repeat itself ,
On the positive in other years since the start of the draft ,we have had some amazing and some appealing results ! We didn’t win a premiership without some great work.

On what basis would we ever go back to the recruiting strategy of 2004?
The only thing in common with that day is the number of first rounders we look like getting.
In that year, we passed up on getting either Stevie J or Jimmy Bartel - so desperate were the Cats for Ottens. We ended up with picks 12 and 26 which was probably unders at the time but we still made a meal of those picks.

This draft is shaping up as a great chance to land 4 or 5 200 gamers….

[camboon]

It is if we pick players who are mainstream and not some gem  back flanker type no one has heard of because of some moneyball BS