Big Kahuna Boot wrote:
.. ..just to preface, i think WH did a good job this draft.. .... ...in regards to Hendos replacin' Fev longterm, nope.. ..he's the replacement CHF we traded to help get Judd.. ..we don't have a bonafide FF player, i think Krooz has the most natural ability/talent/understanding to play that position, but he's more ruck than fwd.. ..even though he'd excel at FF just as much as Ruck i reckon.. ..what we do have, is options we can try for FF, but we've got one definate KPF, plus other tall players we can push/rotate through the F50 so i don't believe we're lacking neccessarily, it's just our coaches are gonna need to rejig it all..
I agree with all of that, and I think even Ratten & Hughes themselves may have been secretly wishing that the player deemed "best available" at pick 12 happened to be a genuine full forward. However, anyone who thinks WH made a bad call by not recruiting a forward in this draft needs to check the facts. It's unanimously agreed that Lucas was the best player available at pick 12, most opinions have him a long way ahead of the best available tall in Talia, despite the fact Talia went at just behind him at pick #13. Gilly has already stated that there were no genuine tall forwards picked up after our second pick, pick 43, so:
WH had 2 chances to draft a forward this year:
- Pass on Lucas, a player rated in the top ten all year and clearly best available to reach for Talia, who isn't even a genuine forward.
Or
- Not draft Davies or Kerr, and REALLY reach for a forward... a forward that 16 AFL recruiting teams all agreed wasn’t good enough to be drafted at all.
As for previous years... recent history shows that drafting a KPF can be a risky and regrettable experience.
Just compare the mids vs talls in 2006 for instance, a year touted as "rich" for KP talent.
1 Bryce Gibbs - Midfielder - Superstar
2 Scott Gumbleton - KP Tall - Can't get on the park
3 Lachlan Hansen - KP Tall - Injuries and unfulfilled potential
4 Matthew Leuenberger - Ruck - Injuries and unfulfilled potential
5 Travis Boak - Midfielder - Superstar
6 Mitchell Thorp - KP Tall - Delisted... Injuries and unfulfilled potential
7 Joel Selwood - Midfielder - Superstar
8 Ben Reid - KP Tall - Solid, but pick #8 in a superdraft?
9 David Armitage - Midfielder - Solid
10 Nathan Brown - KP Tall - Solid, but over rated
11 Andrejs Everitt KP Tall - Potential, but largely unfulfilled
12 James Frawley - KP Tall - Future star.... probably the best of the KP's
13 Jack Riewoldt - KP Tall - Solid, could remain 'just' another player
14 James Sellar - KP Tall - Struggling... a lot....
15 Daniel O'Keefe - Midfielder - Delisted
16 Mitchell Brown - KP Tall - Solid, but again injuries
Have a look at how hard it is to find a 10 year KP forward from the 2006 superdraft, and yet some people think that passing on Talia, at a generous pick #13 in a weak draft, is such an amazing recruiting blunder.
