cortez wrote:
What bugs me is in recent years our recruiting "coups" have been (at great expense) two half back flankers, a small forward, and an injury prone player who would at best be a second string marking forward. This when what we desperately need (as was starkly obvious again yesterday) is more big bodied mids.
I used to hold hopes that one day we would just "click" like Richmond, or this year Melbourne. I believed we weren't far away. Last year I was saying "next year we make the finals". Now, even allowing for injuries I just can't see significant improvement with our current list. The work ethic of some, the folding under pressure, the awful skill levels, it just goes on and on year after year.
I'm not getting any younger and before I go I want to be able to take my grandsons to see a rampant, premiership winning Blues like I knew in the past.
Well to be fair we haven't probably chased a midfielder because we have so much of our draft capital tied up on midfielders.
2015 - Cuningham, Kennedy
2016 - SPS, Setterfield, Fisher
2017 - Dow, LOB
2018 - Walsh, Stocker
2019 - Ramsay, Philp
That's 11 there and not a single one of them other than Walsh has come on as hoped. Though the last 3 do have time on their side. By chasing big name midfielders would have been at the expense of their development.
Our development has been deplorable anyhow, that's what's really hurting us. And the midfielders we did chase spurned us (some rather fortunately in hindsight) e.g. Rockliff, Shiel, Coniglio