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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: List Building - More than one way to skin a cat
Last post by Thryleon -
So our list management strategy is seeing who wants to come to us and work in with what we have.
....and if nobody wants to come to us??
This is where the draft cuts out the 'want' side of things.
If they end up wanting out, then so be it, but you've got something of value you can trade.
If not, then problem solved.
"What if no-one wants to come to us..."
Seriously?
You do some really good, deep analysis and then you pull out these 'extreme' conclusions.
At the end of the day it's all a guess and personal opinion, embellished with a bit of bias as to how we would do things.
The draft has it's place, but that place loses its importance the deeper into the draft you go.
Recruiting has a lot of elements and there comes a point where one element becomes preferable over another.
Talls are always risky through the draft.
You might draft 4 or 5 for nil result
Yet a look at young players with a couple of years experience and you have a better idea of the player they might be.
The what if game:
What if we topped up two years ago and won a flag?
What if we topped up with B grade recruits ala Richmond post 3 peat, and then bottomed out like they have with everyone wanting out to greener pastures so they can rebuild anew?
What if we hadnt sacked Ratten and appointed Malthouse?
What if we hadnt let Eddie Betts leave?
What if SOS hadnt drafted Finbar O Dwyer?
What if Baldilocks hadnt had a falling out with SOS?
What if my grandmother had testicles?
Its all well and good to hypothesize, but we have built a layer of kids that can carry us forward now players have started dropping off from the heady days of 2 half good seasons. We recruited ready mades in Cerra, Hewett, Saad, Mcgovern and Williams. It got us into also ran status, and whilst we started believing we were good enough, it didnt come together for long enough before this season to really make us believe we could win it.
Why? IMHO it was dumb luck. We put ourselves in the frame, but we still had too much left to too few, and were never really dominant looking like we could win from anywhere. It happend a handfull of times, but not as regularly as Collingwood 2023 who you just knew would find a way, nor as regularly as Brisbane over the last 5 years who have played as many poor games as we have really accomplished ones. Partly through injury. So many players missing entire seasons from our team. Im not hoping we dont lose one, im hoping its someone we care less about these days and wont impact our fortunes greatly.
The kids dont look like they will win us much, but there are a few prospective 200 gamers in that young lot, and between HOF and what we think Dean will be, our key position defenders are set for the next 10 years.