JB was a terrific recruiter, one of the best.
Look at the 25 guys who have played for us so far this season and have smashed the bejeesus out of a number of pretty good teams. All but a handful were recruited on JB's watch. Apart from our stars recruited in the 2000-03 drafts (including quite a number of very astute picks outside the top 10: Dal, Joey, Chips, Mini, Gwilt and Gilbert), it is possible that he even had a role in bringing Gardi, Jones and Geary to the club.
Presumably Geelong and Hawthorn have had good recruiters in place over the past decade. Apart from these two, are there many more clubs with a proven better record than ours?
All that said, I agree with BigMart that JB has had a longstanding penchant for recruiting very slight players with lower draft picks. He has often been criticised for overly favouring players who are bit on the slow side, and I think the Howards, Raymonds and co. are instances of him trying to compensate for this.
By the way, wasn't Eljay recruited after JB had retired from his role?
John Beveridge lets take another Poll
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meher baba
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Winmar7Fan
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That's exactly how I see It MB but obviously not many others agree. This guy's been around Involved behind the scenes for a long time responsible for a lot more than probably any of us know.meher baba wrote:JB was a terrific recruiter, one of the best.
Look at the 25 guys who have played for us so far this season and have smashed the bejeesus out of a number of pretty good teams. All but a handful were recruited on JB's watch. Apart from our stars recruited in the 2000-03 drafts (including quite a number of very astute picks outside the top 10: Dal, Joey, Chips, Mini, Gwilt and Gilbert), it is possible that he even had a role in bringing Gardi, Jones and Geary to the club.
Presumably Geelong and Hawthorn have had good recruiters in place over the past decade. Apart from these two, are there many more clubs with a proven better record than ours?
All that said, I agree with BigMart that JB has had a longstanding penchant for recruiting very slight players with lower draft picks. He has often been criticised for overly favouring players who are bit on the slow side, and I think the Howards, Raymonds and co. are instances of him trying to compensate for this.
By the way, wasn't Eljay recruited after JB had retired from his role?
I reckon JB's strike rate was no different from any other recruiter......he was no better or no worse than most.....
IMO he did not modernise his thinking towards young players to the scientific model, that looked at the whole picture of a player - (Ability, size, athletic ability, character, leadership, medical history) - instead the old fashion notion......have some scouts in certain areas and look at raw ability....
He snubbed the TAC cup in preference to a variety of leagues (QAFL for instance) and we took the lowest number of kids from the best breeding ground in the country since it's inception (except interstate clubs) - where kids have elite grounding and get weeded out........Justin Sweeney was a mind boggling selection....on heresay from a mate, that the kid could play....they obviously.
With regards to trading
2 points
1 -- do you think JB would not have been questioned about whether Fergus watts would be a better option than Pick #17 2005, do you think he would have not been consulted as to the strength of the draft, and whether it was a wise move to trade the pick for that player?????
Seriously
2 -- When a pick is traded for a player, then surely it is easy to understand that the player traded for is what becomes your selection.....not in the draft, but what you recieve for your pick in the draft...
ie/ for our first round pick in the 2005 draft, we secured a trade for Fergus Watts #17, therefore Watts becomes the player we used our first round pick on...and adelaide secured Darren Pfieffer in that draft (to replace watts).
So trade/draft - it does not matter......every club gets picks at the close of the season and yes the can swap picks/players it does not matter - they still get an asset for that pick..
We did not lose pick 17 in 2005 - we got Watts for it....so again, in my thinking he is the player we selected with that pick - just not in the draft
IMO he did not modernise his thinking towards young players to the scientific model, that looked at the whole picture of a player - (Ability, size, athletic ability, character, leadership, medical history) - instead the old fashion notion......have some scouts in certain areas and look at raw ability....
He snubbed the TAC cup in preference to a variety of leagues (QAFL for instance) and we took the lowest number of kids from the best breeding ground in the country since it's inception (except interstate clubs) - where kids have elite grounding and get weeded out........Justin Sweeney was a mind boggling selection....on heresay from a mate, that the kid could play....they obviously.
With regards to trading
2 points
1 -- do you think JB would not have been questioned about whether Fergus watts would be a better option than Pick #17 2005, do you think he would have not been consulted as to the strength of the draft, and whether it was a wise move to trade the pick for that player?????
Seriously
2 -- When a pick is traded for a player, then surely it is easy to understand that the player traded for is what becomes your selection.....not in the draft, but what you recieve for your pick in the draft...
ie/ for our first round pick in the 2005 draft, we secured a trade for Fergus Watts #17, therefore Watts becomes the player we used our first round pick on...and adelaide secured Darren Pfieffer in that draft (to replace watts).
So trade/draft - it does not matter......every club gets picks at the close of the season and yes the can swap picks/players it does not matter - they still get an asset for that pick..
We did not lose pick 17 in 2005 - we got Watts for it....so again, in my thinking he is the player we selected with that pick - just not in the draft
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GrumpyOne
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Animal Enclosure
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Would love to hear your justification for this. Did JB not attend draft camps (the major scientific measuring stick)? Do you know for a fact that he didn't interview every prospective draftee?BigMart wrote:I reckon JB's strike rate was no different from any other recruiter......he was no better or no worse than most.....
IMO he did not modernise his thinking towards young players to the scientific model, that looked at the whole picture of a player - (Ability, size, athletic ability, character, leadership, medical history) - instead the old fashion notion......have some scouts in certain areas and look at raw ability....
Maybe if you consider that JB had one of the lowest (if not the lowest) recruiting budget in the AFL & relied on a small number of low paid scouts for info on hidden gems (or duds). He didn't probably have at his disposal psychologists to profile players, private investigators to report back on prodigiously talented kids with dubious social pursuits or a private plane to fly around the country.
The man worked for the club for 20 years with terrible resources and interference from numerous coaches and boards. When allowed to do his job he picked some absolute rippers & you want to hang him on four late draft picks and Brad Howard.