early draft picks & premierships

[mark davey]

i am reading alot of doom & gloom posts on here asking why we did not trade for more early draft picks like hawthorn.

How many teams have won premierships resulting from 4 or 5 early draft picks over 3 or 4 years? - none

Brisbane had one year at the bottom. Port and Sydney have never been anywhere near the bottom.

St Kilda is the closest - and their window of opportunity may finish with the retirement of Harvey and Gehrig at the end of 2006. Remember they also picked up Hamil & Gehrig from other clubs

You still need a good balance

 

[BiddiscombeSkills]

Exactly right.

Too much talent coming through at once = big salary cap problems = other clubs poaching players we've spent years and $$$ developing.

Not to mention the fact that playing in a team that's getting humiliated every week will severely stunt the development of anyone, I don't care how talented you are.

Talent is one thing, learning how to do the things that win you games at AFL level is something else entirely.

I firmly believe we've got one of the best mixes for developing young players going round at the moment, and I'm glad TW hasn't gone for Hawthorn's total youth policy which I'm sure will bear some bitter fruit in a few years.

 

[Brettstigers]

Reasonable points - but to put another spin on it - look at the Saints. Good players take paycuts to play in premiership potential teams.

Another point is that it would be nice to have clubs after our players rather than looking like we trod in something everytime we come visiting with player in hand.