parkeysainter wrote:It doesn't really matter who picked who does it? We could go back in single every draft and say we should have picked him over him. You draft who you draft at the time thinking they're a better player or what is required for the needs of the list.
We got Paddy. They got Petrecca. Both clubs just need to make players out of them which they are.
Yes and No.
The club were all for recruiting a tall forward to get great training from the best (being Roo). Obviously form and concussions have had an impact.
I always thought the tall forward option was not the correct decision. We have not recruited according to the AFL status, (ie its a midfielders game). Umpires, commentators voting shows this to be true. Praise is all about quality midfields and we chose to ignore that. We passed on Judd due to work done on his shoulders. We passed on Petracca for another position choice but left our weakness in place for many years. That was the midfield after, Goddard, Dal Santo, Lenny and others finished up at the club. We got slower and started to look at outside mids for recruitment. We missed so many options and took small forwards who have been buffeted by bigger bodied midfielders and defenders.
I always thought we should go for taller mids. We have now been left with some outside choices but these have been injured and not been regular game players. The ones we have picked recently for the inside role need time to prove themselves. We still need more depth. We still need more flair as we have enlisted soldiers. Thank goodness we decided on Acres and Ben Long. They aren't elite but add something different to the team as does Jack Steven who has been overloaded and seems to be injured more than ever before. All related to the clubs choice.
Petracca was our first real chance to make substantial change to the teams make up. I think we blew it and have said this for years (Bontempelli, Cripps, Oliver were others missed). I love the improvement seen in Paddy but delivery to him is shite so his impact is less valued. Clubs done cart before the horse in my opinion.
Midfield clearances and clear winners are needed to make an effective forward line.
You need to protect the ball handler to increase posession efficiency