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IMPORTANT // Please look after your loved ones, yourself and be kind to others. If you are feeling that the world is too hard to handle there is always help - I implore you not to hesitate in contacting one of these wonderful organisations Lifeline and Beyond Blue ... and I'm sure reaching out to our PRE community we will find a way to help. T.
PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
I've been seeing a lot of posts of late talking about the diabolical draft selections we have made (especially between 1999-2004), and while I agree that the recruiters have a lot to answer for with their bizarre selections, they are not completely at fault. These kids were obviously respective stars in their junior footy days, and our scoutsmen obviously saw a lot of potential in these guys to hopefully become 200+ game players for us. However I do not see the blame directed towards out pathetic development program/culture.
It is obvious that it is rare to draft a kid who is a "ready-made" football player that requires little development from a club, which means that a club's professional development program of it's kids is of paramount important. A Development program may involve skills coaches, mentors, off-fields programs, leadership programs or whatever it may be. The point is, whatever the club is doing IT IS NOT WORKING given our disgraceful track record of our development of our draft picks.
The blame should not be directed as much to the recruiters or even the players themselves, but our poor Development program which has yielded such pathetic results. I am almost certain that had we picked up Roughhead and Franklin in the "super draft" they would have inevitably turned out to be COMPLETE DUDS for the simple reason that we are completely clueless in how to bring out the best in our players. It is unbelievable we can have guys in our list for a number of years who have shown absolutely NO IMPROVEMENT whatsoever (e.g. schulz, Tambling). Had another team with a good Development program been able to pick up Deledio and Tambling, there's a fair chance that Bling would be an All-Australian MF'er by now, and Lids would be compared alongside Judd as complete gun on-baller.
The point I am trying to make is, that our recruiters aren't "necessarily" making poor choices, . . . we simply do not know how to get the most out of our players through internal development. It really doesn't matter WHO we draft if we do not have the development program and culture to turn our "young-guns" into "stars", and "potentials" into "good footballers". Rather than point the finger at our recruitment staff, maybe we should be looking at a major clean-out elsewhere.
It is obvious that it is rare to draft a kid who is a "ready-made" football player that requires little development from a club, which means that a club's professional development program of it's kids is of paramount important. A Development program may involve skills coaches, mentors, off-fields programs, leadership programs or whatever it may be. The point is, whatever the club is doing IT IS NOT WORKING given our disgraceful track record of our development of our draft picks.
The blame should not be directed as much to the recruiters or even the players themselves, but our poor Development program which has yielded such pathetic results. I am almost certain that had we picked up Roughhead and Franklin in the "super draft" they would have inevitably turned out to be COMPLETE DUDS for the simple reason that we are completely clueless in how to bring out the best in our players. It is unbelievable we can have guys in our list for a number of years who have shown absolutely NO IMPROVEMENT whatsoever (e.g. schulz, Tambling). Had another team with a good Development program been able to pick up Deledio and Tambling, there's a fair chance that Bling would be an All-Australian MF'er by now, and Lids would be compared alongside Judd as complete gun on-baller.
The point I am trying to make is, that our recruiters aren't "necessarily" making poor choices, . . . we simply do not know how to get the most out of our players through internal development. It really doesn't matter WHO we draft if we do not have the development program and culture to turn our "young-guns" into "stars", and "potentials" into "good footballers". Rather than point the finger at our recruitment staff, maybe we should be looking at a major clean-out elsewhere.