Drafting elite AFL players

[simon tonna]

[jackcass]

[HAL]

[Pies4shaw]

"Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop Dave? Stop, Dave."

[thompsoc]

[Pies4shaw]

Well, you're still very welcome to join the substantive discussion.

[thompsoc]

[stui magpie]

[King Monkey]

[E]

[stui magpie]

^

Aaron Keating is a premiership ruckman. "Elite" is not a word usually used to describe his 6 game AFL career.

Cam mooney is a 3 time premiership player. The first one he didn't register a stat in.

Your point?

[AN_Inkling]

Yep, Hawthorn have definitely not drafted any elite players since 2009. No A graders either. Smith and Hill are closest but these are both types that look good in a great team but not so good out of it, B-graders for mine.

Their success as Pies4shaw said was built during the Schwab years. They made tough decisions to draft experience for picks. They had a lot of picks and got enough right (as many wrong as most teams too though). I don't think their success rate was particularly special, the number of picks and a couple of great late gets sealed the deal.

The one thing they've done very well and better than most is to trade for ready made players that finished of their list build. This is made easier when you have the young players/picks to give up and a team entering its prime to entice players over. We did similarly in signing Ball, Jolly and Krakouer.

[Pies4shaw]

^^^ In fact, Hawthorn had to recruit established talent in to cover massive deficits in their list - 7 players in each of their 2013 and 2014 premiership teams started their careers elsewhere. In 2013, eg, they had Burgoyne, Lake, Gibson, Guerra, Hale, Gunston and Simpkin. For 2014, replace Guerra and Simpkin with McEvoy and Spangher.

By contrast, Collingwood 2010 was largely perfected in the drafts from 2005 to 2008. The players recruited in those 4 years included the defensive spine (Brown and Reid), the CHF (Dawes) and most of the mid-field class (Pendlebury, Thomas, Sidebottom). They also drafted or rookied (putting aside Leigh Brown and Ball), Toovey, Goldsack, Macaffer, Wellingham, Beams and Blair. That's 12 of the premiership 22. (2007 produced no premiership players and might reasonably be considered to have been a complete waste, since the 2009 draft picks had to be used again to secure a ruckman and an inside mid.)

In fact, Collingwood only recruited two premiership players (Jolly and Ball) that had any real currency at the time they were selected (Leigh Brown was taken with a late draft pick because his services were no longer required).