And Watson at pick 18 was the earliest. Hartlett next at 25. McCarthy at 34. Austin at 35. Mitchell at 42. Rowe at 44.

By contrast, Essendon* took Gumbleton at pick 2. Hurley at 5. Ryder at 7. Daniher at 10. Pears at 23. Carlisle at 24. Hooker at 54. Crameri was the real steal, coming as a rookie. But that's 4 talls in the top 10. And another 2 in the 20s.

The contrast in quality is not surprising. I reckon they got this right. Quality talls have to be taken early in the draft. And they take longer. So you draft them earlier when you're building.

That's why they have been do much better than us! Oh hang on...

They still have midfield depth issues, and see how they go without Hurley and Ryder which are significant outs.

Long season, their list has a fair bit to work with, as does ours.

I heard a rumour MMs arthritic medication is injected and could be looked at by the authorities. You might have your desired 'cultural' lift after all TOne

Golden boy's escape right there. "I suffer from arthritis".

..while i agree that kpp's are better chances the earlier they are picked, this isn't an exact comparison..

..Gumby at 2, we picked up Gibbs at 1.. ..and next pick was PP end of 1st round, and the previous year we got Kennedy at 4, and still had Fev [and lance, and waite].. ..we needed class onballers in a big way, less so than KPFs at that point in time.. ..if we were thinking of going tall with pick 1, then perhaps Luey might have been an option rather than Gumby in that scenario..

..Hurley at 5, our pick was at 6.. ..and fair chance we would have gone Hurley if Bombres passed.. ..decent rated talls that draft were taken before we got a look in..

..Ryder at 7, that year we went Murphy at 1, and Kennedy at 4.. ..can't say we picked wrong..

..Daniher was a F/S, not really in open contention.. ..too early to call on that draft, pre-draft i was more inclined for Jaksch over Menzel..

..in regards to the early pick talls in the top that bombres have, we weren't shy either.. ..we have Krooz at 1, and we had Kennedy at 4 [in a way replaced with Hendo at 8].. ..Hampson at 17, Watson at 18.. ..i think Lucas over Talia, and potentially Menzel over Jaksch may come back to haunt us down the track.. ..while both Lucas and Menzel are welcome additions to any team, i think we have more options for outside ball carriers, vs longterm KPP options..

..i think we tend to only pick talls early when we're really Forced to..

..but ultimately we went thru a patch where there wasn't a huge amount of good kpps at our earlier picks, during our desperate rebuild stage.. ..it's the last 3/4 drafts where we've picked Lucas over Talia, Watson over Darling, Menzel over Jaksch..

..i don't advise reaching too much for any type of player, but when you have sound options of a variety around the mark of the pick, and our needs are so obvious [and have been for a while],, i think our selections could have been better..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

I agree with most of what you say, but I do think you probably have to 'reach' a little for KPF, because they're so important structurally and so hard to get good ones onto your list. Also because they develop later they will rarely be as highly rated as juniors.

Also, I don't consider Kreuzer or Hampson as relevant to this discussion, being ruckmen not KPFs.

..i guess they're relevant, only in the sense that at the time of their drafting, we had fev and waite,, and no rucks.. ..i'm talking about kpps overall, not just kpfs.. ..and rucks i would consider to be kpps.. ..which ever way you look at it, our goal to goal spine, end to end, is average.. ..we haven't had a tall kick over 30 goals since fev..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

Every Essendon* tall was a top ten pick. When was our last top 10 pick? (2008) And we took Yarran after Hurley. Maybe that suggests Grundy was a bargain at 18, given we could have probably traded out a ruckman for a top 30 pick Our greater fault is the plethora of flankers we have recruited who have not delivered (Bootsma, Lucas, O'keefe, Mcinness, Dale, Davies). Some have injury excuses but the bottom line is our kids haven't come or shown much leaving an aging, slow list. We need some of those picks to kick. As posted elsewhere we need just one of Watson/Mcarthy to develop as a key backman because we would essentially pick up a key forward in Henderson. We are all dropping our heads after three losses to good sides to the same extent as we were high on 3 wins last year. Wait until half way through the season before passing any judgements.

Yep.
I thought selecting Jaksch would have been a no brainer. Ditto Talia.
Passing on Darling doesn't annoy me so much as the fact he fell through to the late twenties suggested that all the other clubs had their doubts over him as well. Unfortuntely recruiting isn't an exact science (unless you are Wells from Geelong).

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'The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule it'
H.L. Mencken

Get Wells....!


SOON!

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#DonTheStash

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

There's other ways to get tall players without having to 'reach' with top ten picks. Even so, there is a bit of an art in knowing when to 'reach', it's not all about top ten picks. You need to know the depths of a particular draft, when to trade in to it and knowing when the potential benefit outweighs the risk. You have to be able to speculate what you are going to need a few years down the track. As someone else said, you get the players in before you need them, be proactive rather than reactive. You would think having a surplus of potential key players (including on-ballers), having most of them bomb-out but one or more of them really thriving, would be a higher priority than risk minimisation. Nope - we are too busy signing everybody up, getting all hung up by how we lost to St. Kilda by three points, and thinking the junior All-Australian left half-back flanker is going to make us a three goal a game better side.

It's all a bit too deliberate and short-sighted.

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Just because I'm offended, doesn't mean I'm wrong.

We know Essendon* always start a year off well. They always beat us in round 3 or 4. When it comes to round 20 though, about 10 weeks after Essendon*'s season has peaked, we smash the crap out of them.

Essendon* as any kind of benchmark is ridiculous. We have finished higher on the ladder than them the past 5 years.

I think after the win last week against the weagles our Culture should never be questioned again!

Today's game will be a big test for our "culture", up against a side we are notorious for crumbling against.

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY