4thchicken wrote:
Jacobs we possibly could have - but then again, I rated jacobs as the best of our tap ruckmen and would have played him ahead of the others. Then again, I would have picked cotchin ahead of kreuzer given how narrow the gap in ability/potential between the 2 was (on the basis that it would take longer for kreuzer to mature physically/be ready - I want 10 yrs of solid service from pick 1, not wait 4-5 yrs for 5 yrs of solid service).
Obviously the club was enamoured by the greater athleticism of hampson, kreuzer and warnock and rated them ahead on potential and had him 4th in the pecking order. Thats a judgement call, that combined with what we paid for the ruck men (pick 1 for kreuzer, pick 17 for hampson, 2nd and 3rd round picks for warnock) - not one that I agreed with but one I can understand and live with
I still don't agree that it was a mistake to trade jacobs though given that he was going to leave.
Well, if you remember that Sticks flagged the idea of trading one of the ruckmen well before the end of that season. Perhaps Jacobs sensed that he was at the back of the pecking order and thought that his best option was to seek greener pastures, so to speak.
To be honest I was in favour of trading him, too, but the fact that it was Jacobs to Adelaide or nothing reeks of plans going awry. We certainly didn't get a chance to trade a surplus ruckmen in a way that favoured us. Perhaps it's Karma for trading for Warnock. I really do believe we went all gung-ho in that instance and overrated him in the process.