People say that but the Gold Coast had a fair crack at it as well and got nowhere.
I'm the first to say drafting is more good luck than good management, but Silvagni deserves enormous credit for refusing to buckle to AFL pressure to use picks to trade in established players from other clubs.
He refused to sell the farm on a marquee signing and instead took young leaders, high draft picks and veterans with a coaching instinct and just built so many high picks there had to be enough talent to come through.
In the early days when they were belted he was questioned but there's no doubt now he nailed the strategy and I'll bet the Tassie franchise will run his playbook to the letter.
Nothing wrong with GC recruiting. Lynch, Prestia, Caddy, May premiership players. Add to that O'Meara, Dixon, Matera, Martin, Lyons, Saad, 2m Peter who have all left the club. Add those blokes to the recent draftees and those that have hung around like Miller, Swallow, Day, Fiorini, Lukoscious, Rankine, King, Rowell, Anderson and that's a pretty decent team.
The problem GC had was retention. This related to culture which is what separates GWS and GC IMO. Giants embedded a strong culture early on with some experienced campaigners at the helm (Sheedy, Chocco, Allen, McConnell, Lambert) compared to GWS who had a rookie coach and not much more around him.