MSG and SaintBot have covered the topic beautifully. The only thing I would add is that a lot of the outside players in the AFL weren't drafted to play that game. Melbourne were hoping for a much more rounded player when they selected Travis Johnstone. Same for North Melbourne with Daniel Wells. Most teams that take specialist small forwards hope they'll eventually move onball. Very few of them actually do. For every Gary Ablett or Nathan Brown there's an Ashley Sampi or a Cam Faulkner. There's a whole bunch of guys in between, like Daniel Motlop, who have had decent careers up forward but never really starred there and probably won't ever shift to the middle.Oh When the Saints wrote:How do you suppose we acquire them then?vacuous space wrote: I'm not a fan of drafting pockets and wingmen.
I think we're better off sticking with drafting skilled inside mids and using them wherever they're needed. Guys like Xavier Clarke and Jason Gram weren't drafted to play an exclusively outside role, but that's how things have panned out. Joey started his AFL career on the outside and has grabbed his opportunity to play a more inside role. I expect Schneider to play a similar role to Joey next year. I'm not saying we should never take an outside guy. Losing the skills of Heath Black and Aussie Jones has really hurt our forwards IMO. But I don't think Connors will ever be that type of player though on account of his tiny body. I'd have much rather have had someone like Joseph who has at least handled onball duties as a junior.
