Worth a bump given our current midfield woes.
It's all well and good to lament our 'thin' midfield, and say that we should've drafted <x> instead of who we got, but consider the midfielders we've selected in every draft since our KPP haul in 2015.
Quote:
2015#23 - David Cuningham (
around the mark)
2016#6 - Sam Petrevski-Seton (
exactly where predicted)
#27 - Zac Fisher (
Little earlier than expected)
2017#3 - Paddy Dow (
Exactly where predicted)
#10 - Lochie O'Brien (
Little earlier than expected - it's well known that Hunter Clark was the one we wanted but was gone already)
Trade - Matthew Kennedy (originally a 1st round pick selected where expected)
2018#1 - Sam Walsh (say no more)
#19 - Liam Stocker (
Around the mark)
Trade - Will Setterfield (regarded by some at the time he was drafted as a potential #1)
Supplemental - Michael Gibbons (best VFL midfielder for the previous few years)
2019#17 - Brodie Kemp (
Later than expected)
#20 - Sam Philp (Little earlier than expected)
PSD - Jack Martin (Free hit due to GCS' idiocy)
2020#41 - Jack Carroll ("Steal of the draft")
FA - Zac Williams (potential A-grader who cost us no picks)
Cheap trade - Lachie Fogarty
So we've brought in the following midfielders who were not duds at the time they came here:
Cuningham
SPS
Fisher
Dow
O'Brien
Kennedy
Walsh (only one all can agree is a win)Stocker
Setterfield
Gibbons
Kemp
Philp
Martin
Carroll
Williams
Fogarty
The common themes when looking at this history are:
- After 2015 when we sorted our KPP out, there has been a strong emphasis on getting the best midfield talent in possible through drafts and trades (extending to failed trades for Shiel, Cognilio, Papley and Oliver).
- None of these guys were duds when they joined us. Many were selected when the 'experts' predicted, and while some were selected a bit later and some a bit earlier, it's pretty close.
- For various reasons, none bar Walsh have demonstrated improvement or at least return on investment since they arrived.
This tells me that our midfield woes stem not from the players we have brought in, but the club's poor development of them after they arrived, both mental and physical (which includes the inability to keep them on the park).
So next time anyone thinks of lamenting that "we should've drafted Cerra/LDU/Worpel/Duursma etc", just remember that they'd probably be duds here too, just like Josh Kennedy would've likely amounted to little had he stayed here.