Sydney Blue wrote:
If you want to look at clubs that have done a total rebuild there are no greater examples than GWS and GC
Now granted we don't have the draft concessions they both have but if you look at the two clubs one tried to develop a club based on youth and a handful of seasoned players like Ablett and Brennan and they tried Campbell Brown - the other went the youth rout but surrounded them with hard nuts Ward, Brogdan , Mumford Setanta - Shaw - Johnson Cornes etc - these guys took the heat off whilst Cameron Patten Greene Kelly sheilds Etc could develop -
My fear here is we have gone the Gold coast route who despite having a heap of early round draft picks they are no closer now than when they started .
We have basically recruited players of a certain age profile (under 25) who have been just getting on their feet themselves and most have fallen away .
Brisbane have noted this and drafted in Hodge - now he isn't going to do this on his own he needs others around him
Goldcoast have been building since 2011 and are no closer - GWS since 2012 and have been finals last two years and could give it a shake this year
I don't feel that Murphy - Kruezer - Simpson - Thomas have provided the same chop out to the players that Brogdan - Ward - Mumford and co have done with the GWS youth
Nice post and I have similar thoughts.
The injuries haven't helped to players like Doc who isn't a senior player in the games played sense but he acts like one.
Rowe and Silvagni both down back, the loss of Gibbs (which I agree with by the way) compounded by Murphy and Kreuzer doesn't make for a stable playing/learning environment.
Bolton needs to salvage something real from this season or the top up player(s) you mentioned that we will be needing at the end of the year and next year will all end up at Hawthorn, Sydney, Richmond, Collingwood or Geelong.
FA was designed for the bottom clubs but has just served to top up the clubs in the premiership window. Dogs saw that as a middle tier club and went big for Boyd to make sure they got their man. It was a huge gamble on their part as he was still relatively untried and is still not playing consistently good footy but they made their play and he played the game of his life when it counted. Norf tried it with Waite but the timing was wrong. He's been a better player for them than for us.
We need to look at the one player we absolutely know will deliver for us over a number of years and WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT, just make the all-in play. Sloane or Wines come to mind this year but I don't think the end of this year is the right timing. We try for a FA this year but next year we should try to land our 'Moby Dick'. I am going to assume the MC has a player in their sights already.
Mature players are also around in the state leagues as we see from time to time. Kelly landed at Geelong at 23 via the draft, a ready made player. He can't be the only one.
One thing is for sure, regardless of how frustrating this can be, we have to stick with the plan, which may take a bit longer than everybody thought. BB is no fool and has worked at the most successful club of the modern era and now is at the most successful club in the comp's history. He knows our expectations and he knows what Hawthorn has achieved by building from the draft and then sustaining success on that foundation.
This is nothing compared to what happened in 2003 and we're still here. The problem was back then we had our hands tied and then we went the wrong route with Malthouse, which set us back five years or more. Had we done this in 2005 when we were allowed back into the draft, or even a bit later, maybe with Ratten, we'd be up there by now.
This is a journey, not a day trip. It takes a more complicated plan, one that is not so inflexible that it can't be massaged when it needs to be but certainly not one that we abandon out of impatience.
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