amazing how many players we picked that turned out to be less than average or very limited players

Being a delisted free agent you're certainly not getting perfection. You take them with all their faults.

Amazing in that people could be so bad at their job. For all those picks we got one player... Cripps. It takes a special talent to identify and pick that much... non-talent.

We are essentially are start up club in the way we have had to recruit and fix the list. It was terminal.

The funny is that posters on here keep blabbing on about kj ect ect , he is , an always will be a lazy player and no one will pick him up in the draft even if he was offerring to pay to play!!

Do they?

Surprised/disappointed to read in the AFL article above, that 1AW no longer appears to be involved in a developmental role with the young indigenous young men at the club. Is someone informed able to confirm/refute this. When he took on that role upon retiring I thought that it was great to see him remain involved at the club as a mentor for these developing players. Reportedly playing coach for Echuca now.

Interesting to hear Hardwick on OTC saying they had a review of their strengths at the beginning of the year and worked out how they should be playing.

Explains why a pretty ordinary team won a flag. Dusty's year is the other.

It's always an interesting call as a coach. Do you play how you should OR how you know your players can play. Often by the time you get players playing the way you want, the season or career is over.??
Tough one, but I think we've been plan focussed for years now to the detriment of many players.. Hopefully changes like Jones may be a new path.

Go you good things

It’s not one or the other.
We are building a new team, so BB & SS can recruit with their preferred game style in mind. However, there are two other inputs which require regular assessment of how to best shape a game style based on the players strengths:
1) The game keeps changing - so we might recruit Cripps when big bodied midfielders are in vogue but may need to reassess when lightning fast, defensive pressure becomes more of a focus - so, how do we employ Cripps’ strengths (just as an example) in this new world?
2) Players may not develop exactly as expected - so we then need to reassess the team based on strengths.

Hardwick, who had already built his team over years and believed in them, only had one option: what is the best way for us to play given our players and the opposition?

Contrast against Malthouse, who appeared to be determined to implement his Collingwood game style with a completely different group of players. Not really trying (beyond Daisy) to recruit the players for that style, nor re-assessing the style based on the players. And even with Daisy, I think he just wanted someone who understood his approach, even though he too was no longer equipped to execute it either...

Recruiters from other teams always have doubts when players go to different clubs . Spoke to a Port Adelaide recruiter he said Jack Silvagni would never make the AFL hewaswrong .go figure!